RWBY RE: Volume 2
by fall-R3aper
Summary: My Rewrite of RWBY Volume 2. Structurally not too much is changed here, but there is plenty added and events may unfold differently from the original. Again, Music is directly referenced and Volumes 3-6 soon to follow after this one. If you're reading this one, you'll likely also wanna read my Volume 1 rewrite as this continues off of that.
1. Chapter 1: Best Day Ever

The streets of Vale were busier than usual, with the Vytal Festival fast approaching, many stands were opening around the street and shops were preparing special items for tourists that were visiting from outside of the Kingdom. One such shop was Tukson's Book Trade that was offering a special deal on books all about the History of Vale. Given how the Festival was still in it's earlier stages, business was as slow as it normally was, so Tukson was busy offloading books on Vale from the back of the store.

He had finished unloading the i last set of books when the lights in the building cut out. "Odd... I could have sworn I paid the electricity bill yesterday..." Tukson walked out front to check for customers, and he just so happened to spot a couple. A dark skinned girl with green hair and a pale man with gray hair.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun! How can I help you?" he asked as the male was looking through the books.

"Hello, I was wondering if you had any copies of the Thief and the Butcher." the woman asked.

"We do... In the back, I could get you a copy if you'd like. I apologize for the state the store's in, I know I paid the electricity bill and I was in the middle of reorganizing for Vytal Festival guests." he explained.

"Oh, it's fine. And I was just wondering... Hmm... How about Violet's Garden?" she asked.

"They have it, hard cover too." the male stated.

"Options sure are nice, aren't they?" the girl smiled as the boy just let out a sigh. "Emerald, I can't find any comics here."

Tukson just chuckled a little. "They're by the front. You might have an easier time finding what you're looking for once I can get the lights back on." He reached for his scroll but it suddenly dropped from his hand. "That's odd... I could have sworn I had a firm grip on it. "It slipped out of his hand and this time into a crack beneath the floor boards he could have sworn wasn't there a second ago as the girl smiled at him. He also swore he heard what sounded like a snake's hiss from the back of his mind.

"How about Third Crusade." Emerald asked, her pleasant tone immediately dropping.

"Third Crusade- Oh..." Tukson glanced up at them, having figured it out, but he decided to not bring it up. "Well... You got me, that's the one book we don't carry here."

"Oh..." the male dropped the book he was holding as he turned to the man.

"What was this place called, Mercury?" Emerald asked him.

"Tukson's Book Trade. 'Home to Every book under the sun' Except for Third Crusade." Mercury chuckled.

Tukson groaned while taking a step backwards. "Well, It's just a catch phrase."

"It's false advertising!" Mercury glared.

"I take it you've already figured out why we're here then." Emerald stated.

"Yes." the faunus nodded.

"Your brothers and sisters in the White Fang aren't too happy about your little operation here..." she stated.

Before she could say another word, Tukson turned towards the back of the store and ran for the back room, thankfully being a faunus allowed him to see in the dark, however he would stop when the back door came open and Blake entered the building, again Tukson heard that hissing sound.

"Blake!" Tukson looked over his shoulder as he handed her his book of Ex White Fang operative stories. "You have to get out of here now! The White Fang knows about my Underground Railroad. I have to-" he would stop when Blake's Katana struck him, shattering his aura instantly as he was slammed back onto a shelf full of books that all fell onto him. As he sat himself up Emerald and Mercury were both looking down on him, smiling.

"You gonna fight back?" Emerald taunted, dropping the book to the floor with a smirk.

Tukson grit his teeth and claws came out of his nails. "YES!" he swung at Emerald, but she merely ducked, just in time for Mercury to kick him in the face with one of his greaves that fired the gunshot that would be the last thing Tukson saw.

Emerald stretched as she waited right outside of the store.

Mercury stepped out, flipping the sign near the window to closed as he was now holding a comic book in hand.

"What took you so long?"

"It isn't exactly easy getting stains off these ya know." he gestured to his boots.

"And what's with that?"

"What? I like the pictures." Mercury stated as the two left the scene.

* * *

Blake Belladonna sat tiredly looking down at her notebook that had poetry written in it and a sketch of a man with his back turned before Yang peered over her shoulder.

"Whatcha doin'?!" she asked curiously as Blake woke herself up and closed her notebook.

"N-Nothing! I'm just looking over notes from last semester!" Blake assured.

"Laaame." Yang rolled her eyes before a grape was thrown in her direction that she caught with her mouth and ate, giving a thumbs up to Nora and Alix who were across from her on different tables. Yang catching a grape that Alix threw at her this time.

"Score!" Alix snickered before Nora pouted and threw an entire grapefruit at Alix that he barely ducked from.

"Well I think looking over notes is a smart idea-" Weiss was cut short when Ruby dumped a folder onto the table.

Weiss suspiciously glared at the folder.

"AHEM! Attention, Teammates, Sisters, Weiss!" Ruby began.

"HEY!" Weiss's eye twitched.

"4 Score and 20 minutes ago, I had a dream!" Ruby proclaimed.

"Oh this is gonna be good!" Yang chuckled catching another two Grapes that Nora and Alix threw at her, nodding in approval, Nora again shooting an angry glare at Alix, determined to win this little game.

"The four of us would come together as a team, and have the most fun anyone's ever had, ever!" Ruby stated as she was about ready to open the binder.

"Did you steal my binder?!" Weiss finally noticed the crude tape with Ruby's name that was on the binder.

"I am not a crook!" Ruby reasoned her hands held up in peace signs.

"What are you getting on about?" Blake asked.

"I'm talking about us, kicking this semester off with a bang!" Ruby grinned.

"I always kick my semesters off... With a YANG! Eh?! Eh?!" Yang waited for the laughter, unfortunately for her the only person that laughed was Alix that promptly got knocked off his chair by a Melon hitting him the face as Nora then threw a Grapefruit at Yang that hit her in the face, making her growl in annoyance.

"Booo!" Nora yelled as Yang threw the grapefruit back at her.

"Look, between new students from other schools arriving for the festival, our first shadowing missions being this semester AND the festival tournament at the end of the year, our Second semester's gonna be great. But, classes start up tomorrow so that's why I've taken the time to schedule some fun events for us to do today!" Ruby explained.

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared for what you have planned." Weiss confessed.

Yang dodged a tomato and threw an apple at Nora now.

"I dunno, I think I might sit this one out." Blake looked away.

"Sit out or not, I think we should spend this last day as a team!" Weiss affirmed, standing up. "I for one think that-"

it was at this moment Yang dodged a pie getting thrown at her face that wound up hitting Weiss.

Her eyes went wide as the pie slid off her face and she glared at the person that threw it, Nora immediately pointed at Jaune.

Ren facepalmed, Pyrrha covered her mouth and Jaune covered his ears from the inevitable yelling he was about to get from Weiss. Alix countered Nora's melon attack with a scoop of Mac and cheese flung from his spork that hit it's mark.

* * *

Just outside of the Cafeteria Sun Wukong and one of his teammates were talking. This teammate had bright blue hair, tanned skin and wore a rather classy looking red vest.

"Oh so then I threw a banana on a guy and got into a fight with this girl that had a whip. And like it was super cool!" Sun explained while walking just around the perimeter of the cafeteria.

"Nice." His teammate nodded to him.

"Oh! And the best part is, she's a faunus! Oh but like don't tell anyone that! That's a secret! Don't tell anyone that!" Sun corrected.

"Got it." he rolled his eyes.

"Not a, 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret'. A Secret Secret!" Sun added.

"Alright, Alright." his teammate rolled his eyes. "I got it, I got it."

"You better have gotten it." Sun glared, patting his chest. "I just don't wanna screw this up. The people here are the coolest, Neptune! Oh, but no offense to you guys."

"None Taken." Neptune assured, not noticing the carnage going on inside the cafeteria as Jaune was flung into one of the windows along with a bunch of other food objects.

"J-Just be cool okay, they're right inside. You're gonna be cool, right?" Sun asked.

"Dude." Neptune posed with his arms crossed and his White teeth glistening.

"Fair point." Sun deadpanned before the two entered the cafeteria.

"FOOD FIGHT!" One of the students called out as at the very far end of the cafeteria was a stack of lunch tables with Nora standing right on top of them and her teammates standing right below her.

"**I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE! I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE!**" she laughed.

Team RWBY, along with Alix and Erika who stood near the other corner of the Cafeteria steered themselves for combat.

Ruby drank milk out of a carton before speaking up. "JUSTICE WILL BE SWIFT! JUSTICE WILL BE PAINFUL! IT WILL BE... DELICIOUS!" she yelled, crushing the milk carton as the rest of Team RWBY cheered while rushing towards Team JNPR. Alix and Erika following from their own corner of the cafeteria. "Why did I get dragged into this?!" Erika lamented as Alix lead the charge.

Nora leaped down and flung a table full of melons, Ren kicked up a tray that held three melons, kicking the melons, Jaune threw one melon and Pyrrha threw two melons towards their attackers.

"Yang, Turkeys!" Ruby pointed out to Yang who leaped over the table and inserted her hands into the turkeys, amplifying them with her aura as they now solidified more before she rushed forward punching the melons that came flying her way. Blake picked up a couple of baguettes and solidifying them with her aura as well, attacked more melons with them in unison with Yang before Yang launched the turkeys towards Jaune who was flung over a table as a result.

Alix and Erika looked to each other, Alix grabbing two leaks from a table and Erika back flipping from a couple of melons that came flying her way that Alix shattered with the leaks before Erika picked up a milk carton and threw it at Ren, who dodged it easily, countering with a plate of Mashed potatoes that hit her in the face, knocking her onto her back.

Blake and Pyrrha clashed baguettes now, with Blake almost gaining an upper hand on Pyrrha by using her semblance, however one of Pyrrha's attacks broke Blake's baguette and with another well timed hit, Blake was launched away as Pyrrha threw another couple of baguettes like her Javelin at Yang that she was able to counter with a punch and a kick but a third one hit her right in the stomach as Ruby surfed across the table on a food try, sliding past a leak that Alix threw in her direction and leaping up, hitting a baguette right back at Pyrrha who rolled out of the way, only for Alix to get hit by the Baguette as Ruby then landed right on Pyrrha, kicking off the tray and launching Pyrrha backwards.

Ren and Nora both rushed forward now, with Ruby jumping behind Weiss so she could squirt out the contents of a ketchup Bottle at the two, causing Ren to trip and crash into several tables, launching more debris across the cafeteria as Nora, jumped up, grabbing onto a pole that a banner for Beacon was once hung before this chaos began, stabbing it into a Melon and swinging at Weiss with her new makeshift hammer, Ruby however got in the way and took the hit, getting sent flying backwards as Weiss grabbed a sword fish, clashing with Nora now.

Weiss managed to get a solid hit on Nora by charging forward, she then created a glyph behind herself and Nora, launching herself at the glyph. Nora rolled out of the way of both attacks as Weiss then clashed weapons with her briefly before getting a solid hit off of on her with her melon hammer, launching Weiss into a pillar and shattering it as Ruby then caught her.

"Weiss, don't leave me NO!" Ruby cried out to the unconscious Weiss.

Meanwhile Blake was dodging plates of Mashed potatoes being thrown her way by Erika that she countered by kicking a can of Soda in her face and then a melon thrown by Yang knocked her into a wall as Alix made an attempt to clash with Nora, only getting slammed right into Erika by Nora's melon hammer.

Yang then turned her attention towards Ren who ran towards her, picking up a couple of leaks while Yang found 2 more turkeys and threw out a kick in Ren's direction. Ren looked down to Yang, accidentally getting a peak up Yang's skirt that really set her off now, her eyes turning red.

She threw punch after punch at Ren that he could hardly counter before a turkey caught him under his chin. "_**ORAAAAA**_!" Yang yelled out.

Ren made a desperate attempt to hit her by throwing his leaks at her, but she jumped out of the way and hit him with her next attack.

"_**ORAAAA**_!" she yelled again as she slammed Ren right into the ground, through a table.

Nora then ran at Yang, Yang ready to clash with her, however Nora won this clash and Yang was knocked right through the roof, Nora's melon hammer shattering as a result of it. Blake backflipped to dodge the rubble and grabbed a sausage link, and whipped it around like her weapon, hitting Nora right in the gut, slamming her into a soda machine that dented as Nora then picked up two loose cans of soda, throwing them at Blake who dodged.

Pyrrha then focused her semblance and with it, flung all the cans in Blake's direction, the girl being unable to dodge as she flew back into a mess of food and rubble.

Ruby stood herself up and glared, gearing herself up to Run with her semblance now. She ran forward in a burst of rose petals, picking up any loose rubble and food behind her in her tailwind before she jumped and spun almost turning into a red blur as the wind then picked up Team JNPR, slamming them into a wall just in time for Ruby to jump out of the way of the oncoming rubble that pelted JNPR, covering them in a mess of food before they fell off the wall that now looked like a newly painted mural of abstract art.

"These guys are the best!" Sun laughed looking over to Neptune who was covered in food now as Professor Goodwitch came to the scene.

She glared and started undoing most of the damages that the teams had done.

"Children, don't play with your food!" she insisted just as Yang fell through the roof again and started laughing with everyone.

"Let it go, Glynda." Ozpin stated upon entering the cafeteria.

"They're supposed to be the protectors of the world." Glynda reasoned.

"Yes, but right now they're children. You should let them be children... It won't last forever." Ozpin sipped from his mug.

"Although, if I may interject... They still need to clean up the food stains." Glynda stated, glaring at the guilty parties.

"Fair enough." Ozpin exited the cafeteria as the two teams just laughed awkwardly.

Within moments they were all wearing janitorial gear and were mopping up the mess of food. in the cafeteria.

"Fun day planned, right?!" Yang chuckled sarcastically.

"Well all we need to do is pick up the pace and then we can get back to things!" Ruby assured. "We'll still have time for our board game in the library later at this rate!"

"Oh you are on!" Yang chuckled.

Blake however seemed to drift off to other thoughts now but Weiss clearing her throat and pointing to a mess quickly got her attention back onto the task at hand.

"So then I was like, that attack really, BLEW them away!" Alix chuckled as Ren just furrowed his eyebrows at the bad joke.

"So Ruby, you have things planned with your team today then?" Pyrrha asked.

"Y-Yeah, I do!" Ruby nodded.

"Well why don't you guys let my team handle the rest from here? You guys did plenty." she smiled.

"W-Wow, really Pyrrha?!" Ruby asked.

"It's the least I could do." she smiled as Ruby then glanced over to her teammates as they all nodded approvingly.

"Alright, let's go then!" With that, Team RWBY had left the cafeteria.

"Did you really just leave us with rest of the work?" Erika groaned.

"Less complaining and more cleaning!" Alix insisted as Erika begrudgingly continued to mop. "Team FCSA's reputation is on the line!"

* * *

Cinder was making idle chatter with another visiting student from Haven at the air shuttle stop when Emerald and Mercury finally came over, wearing their uniform, carrying a couple of luggage bags with them.

"What took you too so long?" Cinder asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Apologies, we had some unfinished business to clean up." Emerald grinned a little, Mercury smirking as well.

"That Tukson rat- No wait, Puma won't be helping anymore faunus get out of Vale." Mercury assured.

Cinder let out a sigh. "What did I tell you."

Emerald looked down. "D-Don't think, Obey."

"Mercury." Cinder glared.

"A-And to not talk about things so casually in a space like this." he looked down.

"Exactly. Now that you've gotten your hands dirty, I need to keep a close watch of you both, and you two need to follow my orders EXACTLY." she glared.

"S-Sorry, I did finish clearing out our room in that hotel though." Emerald stated.

"Good." Cinder then turned to the docks.

"I guess we're ready to set foot on Beacon Campus?" Mercury asked.

"We are." Cinder smiled as the air shuttle had arrived.

"We're beginning phase two." she stated as the three of them entered. "I've sent our hat wearing friend his coordinates. He just has one more job to do before he gets there."

"Then the real fun begins?" Mercury asks eagerly.

"Yes." Cinder smiled as their ship took off towards Beacon.

* * *

**Commentary**: Welcome to Volume 2! Now then you'll notice some things different here, such as how Tukson's death was portrayed and also the fact that not all the scenes are exactly the same. There's the obvious inclusion of Alix in the food fight, which he does kind of end up helping that start so lol. Either way, this Volume's going to be an interesting one with all that I've done with it.


	2. Chapter 2: The Welcome Party

Roman Torchwick ducked behind cover as police officers were shooting at him from across the lot while the White Fang members kept their suppressing fire up as the bullhead was finally loaded with all the dust they needed from the local Dust refinery, however just as Roman made his bid to escape, one of the higher level huntsmen grade officers ran at him, it was a woman in uniform wielding a pair of tonfa batons with electricity dust at the end of them.

Roman attempted to fire a shot at her but she dodged to the side and threw a punch at him that hit his stomach, causing him to fall back onto the ship dropping his cane. "Roman Torchwick, you're under arrest!" she proclaimed before a figure loomed over her. The sounds of a revving chainsaw heard behind her. Her eyes went wide, however just as she turned around, it was too late. The chainsaw dug right into her shoulder diagonally, shattering her aura before continuing to cut through her body while she screamed, just as Roman had just gotten his bearings after the shock. After her body dropped to the floor with two thuds, the White Fang Lieutenant helped Roman up and Roman grabbed his cane before the ship took off.

They had surprisingly not lost any men in this heist at all. "You know, it's interesting when these things go mostly smooth." Roman chuckled while brushing off some singe marks from his coat. "Ugh... Gotta get this thing cleaned again."

The Lieutenant chuckled as he set his now bloodied chainsaw down. "Well it's thanks to the training I was able to give these soldiers. Not to mention the cause we fight for. There's better ways to motivate a man than to purely appeal to his sense of desire for personal gain." The Lieutenant seemed to be alluding to Roman's own motivations for joining up with Cinder.

"Now, I don't know what boss lady told you, but I'm in this out of necessity." he smiled. "Like it or not, there's going to be some restructuring done. I intend to be one of those people on top." Roman explained. "Of course, that desire to support your cause." he smirked to the Lieutenant now. "What's to say that isn't motivated by a form of Greed?"

The Lieutenant remained silent now as he simply looked out of the bullhead.

He took a cigar out and was about to light it when another White Fang member pointed to the no smoking sign in the bullhead before he sighed. "I better be able to smoke when we reach those coordinates." He looked to his scroll as the bullhead made a sudden turn back towards Vale after getting a far enough distance, receiving a message about a recruitment drive. "Oh come on, seriously?"

* * *

The airspace of Vale seemed relatively peaceful early this morning, until a small fleet of Atlesian airships entered the airspace, among them was General Ironwood's Command ship that was the largest among the fleet.

From Ozpin's office he could already see the scene and the stir that this large arrival was creating. So he set about going to greet the General himself.

Grabbing his Cane, Ozpin started for the Elevator when the door came open and standing at the other side was General James Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch. "General." Ozpin greeted.

"Please, there's no need for the formalities Oz." Ironwood assured as Glynda was looking at her scroll, entering some information while walking into the office.

Ozpin walked back over to his desk before putting a mug down at his table and pouring in some coffee. "James, would you like a cup?"

Ironwood smiled, before taking a flask out and pouring it's contents into the mug and taking it. "Why of course, Oz."

He took a sip as Ozpin sat back down at his desk with Glynda looking out the window.

"So tell me James, what brings you to Vale? Are you here for the festival? Rather unusual for a Headmaster to come with their students... If I had known you were coming, I'd have invited Theodore and Leo. I'm sure they'd have loved to come." Ozpin chuckled a little before taking a sip from his mug.

"You know why I'm here Oz." Ironwood's tone turned serious.

"Is that why there's a small fleet outside my window?" Ozpin retorted, putting his mug down.

"You can never be too sure, Oz." he reasoned with a chuckle.

"Of course, but why did you come to my tower directly?" Ozpin asked.

"I came to see you of course. Also to check on the CCT tower systems here. I figured it would make things much easier if I synced my Fleet to this tower for the duration of this festival. It would certainly give the ships an easier time of keeping track of things."

"By all means, do as you must." Ozpin drank from his mug again.

"Well from what I can see, this is just boys being boys." Glynda rolled her eyes.

"Professor Goodwitch, what ever do you mean?!" Ozpin asked, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"Oh you know, James showing up here with his military... You trying to be all suave and approach him first. I swear you two just treat everything like a contest of measure di-" she stopped herself before furrowing her eyebrows at footage on her scroll of the then ongoing Food Fight in the Cafeteria.

"It seems like you have something to do." Ozpin remarked, taking a sip from his mug as Ironwood followed Glynda to the elevator to see her out.

Glynda just rolled her eyes as she entered the elevator. "Oh James~" she scoffed at his usual gentlemanly attitude before the door closed.

"Is she always like that?" Ironwood asked.

"Just when she's gotta deal with rowdy children." Ozpin chuckled. "I should probably make sure she doesn't go too hard on them." As he stood up he looked to James. "I suppose our conversation will have to continue another time, James."

"I suppose it will. But Ozpin... I really should ask you something." he turned towards his colleague. "My men, they're here because I'm confident we'll be able to win this. That seeing my fleet will drive fear into the hearts of our enemies."

"That's the problem James." Ozpin tapped his cane onto the ground. "It's not just the enemies your fleet instills fear in and you know very well what fear brings to our borders." the elevator had finally come back up.

"Do you believe your children can win a war, Ozpin?" Ironwood asked.

"I hope they don't have to." Ozpin looked down regretfully as the elevator door closed while Ironwood began to get to work.

* * *

Team RWBY all sat in an air bus into Vale as Ruby beamed eagerly. "I CANT BELIEVE I GET TO GO SHOPPING WITH MY TEAM!" she exclaimed as Yang held her down by the shoulder.

"Easy there, sis!" Yang chuckled.

"Well she seems eager as ever." Blake smiled.

"Of course." Weiss nodded as a slight smile formed on her face.

"What's with the smile Ice Queen?" Yang asked.

"Oh nothing, I just had this idea." Weiss admitted.

"Oh?" Ruby tilted her head.

"That I'd get all my teammates something." Weiss stated, holding up her credit card.

"R-Really Weiss?!" Ruby seemed eager.

"Of course. Shopping's on me today girls."

"I'll try not to go too heavily on spending your money." Blake assured.

"Nonsense, you're all gonna get some stuff you want." Weiss argued as Ruby's eyes lit up.

"This really is gonna be the best day ever!" Ruby exclaimed.

"There has to be another reason you're doing this." Blake stated.

"No... I just..." Weiss let out a sigh. "I just want to make up for how much trouble I've given you all."

"Aww Weiss..." Yang smiled to her. "We care about you too!" she went in for a hug but Weiss stopped with a hand to her face.

"I DIDN'T GIVE PERMISSION FOR THAT!" the heiress complained as Ruby and Blake both chuckled a little when their ship landed.

Venturing out into Vale now, the first stop they made was a designer clothing store where the four of them picked out outfits to their liking, immediately followed by the next stop which was a dust store, that thankfully was able to restock after their actions on the docks months prior with Blake showing slight interest in a special ammunition clip for her weapon that would apparently take a few days to ship.

Lastly there was one more shop Blake wanted to check out before they went back to Beacon for food and then their daily board game. Tukson's book trade. "You don't need to feel nervous Weiss." Blake assured as they approached.

"A-Are you sure?" Weiss asked. "You're certain he wouldn't have any apprehensions about meeting a Schnee?"

"Weiss, it'll be fine, he judges a person by character first rather than by name." as the four finally turned towards the door Blake was a little surprised that the shop was closed.

"That's... Weird." Blake stated as she pushed the door open anyway the rest of her teammates following behind her.

"What's weird?" Yang asked, now feeling cautious herself.

"It should be open by now." she looked around and tried to turn the light on but it wouldn't power on.

Blake immediately rushed to the back, stepping over knocked down books with the rest of her team following behind her, using their scrolls to light the way.

"Tukson?!" she called out worriedly before she then stopped dead in her tracks, dropping her weapon to the ground now before turning away.

She immediately turned her teammates away. "Weiss... C-Call the police..."

"Blake, what's-?" Weiss shone the light of her scroll but immediately turned it off when she saw what Blake did.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked as Yang, forcefully pulled her sister along, not wanting Ruby to see anything now.

Within moments police cars were there and statements were given before they were dismissed.

"I...I should have known this would have happened." Blake looked down.

"Blake... Please-" Yang tried to calm her down but was cut off.

"That's how they work Yang! They silence anyone that would undermine them!" Blake was hyperventilating now. "W-What if they come for me next?!"

Yang then grit her teeth. "Hell no. There's no way they're getting anywhere near my partner!"

"Beacon is like a fortress." Weiss assured. "There's no way they'd let the White Fang get anywhere near it."

"Y-You're right." Blake looked down. "I just... Tukson was a family friend."

Ruby frowned before offering a hug to Blake. Yang pulled the two in before Weiss let out a sigh and joined as well.

"Nothing's happening to you so long as team RWBY's with you." Ruby assured.

"Thanks, Ruby." Blake wiped a tear from her eye before the four of them decided it would be best to try and resume their day.

The next task Ruby had planned was a trip to the library for a round of her favorite board game.

the four girls all sat, looking as competitive as ever, save for Blake who was still thinking about earlier.

Ruby grinned as it was now her turn. "I CALL FORTH, THE ATLESIAN AIR FLEET!" Ruby slammed a card down onto the table, shaking it and all the pieces on the game. "Now with my fleet's might we'll crush all of Yang's Grimm!"

"Pretty sneaky sis..." Yang smirked suddenly. "BUT YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!" Yang held up a card and slammed it down on the table harder than Ruby had, knocking several pieces over as she then made her move. "GIANT NEVERMORE! Now I can attack TWICE!" she smirked as Ruby realized what this meant.

"NOOOO!" she screamed as a couple of tables over, Team JNPR was studying for classes... Well Jaune was reading a comic before Pyrrha sneakily snatched it out of his hands and placed a normal book in, smirking as she then decided to start reading the comic herself.

Nora was asleep and muttering something about pancakes while Ren was studying as diligently as ever.

"I'm completely lost..." Weiss confessed as Yang then peered over at her hand of cards.

"Oh, you have some great cards Weiss!" Yang stated. "With your Vacuan Sandstorm you can freeze all our units before they can enter your territory."

"Which means?" Weiss was confused.

"You're only four turns from winning..." Ruby whined as Weiss smirked deviously.

"Yes, the victor will be I, Weiss Schnee!" Weiss smirked before Yang simply held a card out in front of them.

"Trap card." she stated before moving all the pieces on the board. "Your armies have been defeated."

Weiss groaned as she looked down. "I HATE THIS GAME OF EMOTIONS WE PLAY!"

"WE'LL MAKE IT THROUGH THIS TOGETHER WEISS!" Ruby hugged her.

"Shut up don't touch me!" Weiss hugged her back, much to Yang's slight annoyance as Weiss didn't let her get a hug, barring earlier's hug... Speaking of which.

"Blake?" Yang looked over to Blake who had been silent for most of the game.

"I'm sorry guys. I really tried to keep focus but I just... I can't do this." she shook her head. "I still have too much on my mind and I should go." she left the library. "I'll be in our dorm room."

She walked past Sun who was still giving Neptune and now his other teammates the tour of the campus.

"Oh hey Blake-" Sun frowned as he couldn't even get a word in. "What's gotten into her?"

"It's... A long story." Ruby frowned.

"Oh, well I should introduce you guys, these are my teammates!" he pointed to them.

"Wait you mean you didn't just stowaway to cross the borders illegally?!" Weiss asked, now confused.

"Nah, I'm from Haven. i just wanted to uh scout ahead of my team!" Sun chuckled.

"What he meant to say was that he was monkeying around and got himself shipped off to Vale earlier than planned." the tall dark man with green hair explained. "Sage Ayana." he introduced himself.

"Hi." Ruby and Yang both greeted in unison with a wave.

"Oh um... I'm Scarlet, Scarlet David!" the red haired male greeted with a smile.

"Oooh, I like your cape! It reminds me of mine!" Ruby chuckled, gesturing to her cape.

"Very stylish!" Scarlet complimented as Neptune then took a step forward.

"Hey." he greeted in a suave tone as Weiss looked up at him, a slight tint of pink on her cheeks.

"I-I don't believe we met." Weiss tilted her head.

"The name's Neptune. What's your's?" he asked.

"Weiss..." she bowed her head slightly.

"Weiss, huh? Cute name for a cute girl." Neptune complimented as Weiss darted her eyes away, Ruby and Yang making grossed out faces at Weiss before looking back to the rest of Sun's team.

"So you're here for the tournament?" Yang asked.

"Yep, you're darn tootin' we are!" Sun slammed a fist into his hand.

"Well then, hope to see you boys there!" Yang stood up, looking to Ruby who stood up as well and clearing her throat at Weiss, who was too distracted by Neptune.

"We should really check on Blake." Yang insisted.

"You're right." Weiss focused herself again. "I'll see you around Neptune." she smiled to him before the three members of team RWBY left.

Neptune just smiled a bit and waved.

"Women, am I right?" Nora chuckled as Team SSSN and the rest of her teammates all just stared at her.

* * *

Blake sat on her bed, curled up and recounting that night. The voices of the White Fang members calling her a traitor, her fighting Roman and even as far back as the day she had abandoned the White Fang.

On that same night after everyone had gotten back to Beacon Blake was pulled aside into Professor Ozpin's office for a discussion.

"Now Miss Belladonna, you're probably wondering why I chose to pull you aside." Professor Ozpin began.

"I know, it's because I ran from my teammates and I've been hiding secrets from everyone here." Blake looked down.

"Yes." Ozpin poured out a cup of coffee and set it down in front of Blake.

"I'm more of a tea person." Blake stated, turning away as Ozpin let out a sigh.

"Why do you hide your ears, Miss Belladonna?" he asked.

"There are people who would mistreat me if they saw i had them. With all due respect Professor Ozpin I see how some of your students treat us. They'd pull on my ears, make fun of me and call me a freak than judge me for who I am." she argued.

"I see..." Ozpin sat down, taking a sip of his coffee now. "Well, as you know I've been working as hard as I can to make strides in faunus and human relations here and Vale and in Beacon. We're working to lessen that gap that sets all of us apart."

"With all due respect Professor, you need to work faster." Blake looked down. "If you allow your own students to behave like Cardin and Weiss, then what's to even say that you're really making those strides you speak of?"

Professor Ozpin looked out the window. "Blake... I can't make a person change their own outlook on the world over night. I can however not encourage such behavior and hope that they eventually understand the message." he reasoned. "But it's up to them to accept you. Now then, if you can so kindly tell me what exactly went down, I might be able to assure that less incidents like these occur."

Blake took a deep breath. This was going to be a long night of explanations.

* * *

Blake was snapped out of her short moment of rest when her teammates entered the room.

"Blake. We should talk." Yang insisted as Blake stood up.

"No, no... It's fine." Blake started towards the door, wanting to find another quiet space as Weiss then grabbed Blake's arm.

"No! We're having a discussion as a team!" Weiss insisted, Ruby closing the door as Weiss pulled a chair up for Blake to sit at while the others would sit on their beds.

"This is about earlier, isn't it?" Ruby frowned.

Blake just inhaled deeply. "Yes, Ruby it is."

"Well the authorities are already covering it and I mean if the White Fang is up to anything we'll be fine here at Beacon." Yang reasoned.

"That's just it. I can't just stay here at Beacon." Blake began. "Not while the White Fang is out there doing, who knows what?! They might be planning some big attack!"

"Well the authorities should be able to take care of it." Weiss reasoned. "You told Ozpin all you knew, didn't you?"

"W-Well yes. But there's no guarantees that they won't change their strategies up. Especially if they know I'm opposing them now. They don't know the White Fang like I do." Blake argued.

"Well we're not ready!" Weiss stomped her foot down.

"We may never be ready! Like it or not, our enemies are out there, planning their next move and they're not just gonna sit around and wait for graduation day!" Blake crossed her arms.

"Well what do you propose we do?" Weiss asked.

"I'll deal with this on my-" Blake was stopped from leaving again when Ruby hopped up onto the chair she was just sitting in, now standing in front of Blake.

"Who votes that the four of us team up to stop an underground crime organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale and it's good people?!" Ruby asked speaking rather fast.

Weiss let out a sigh. "Fine. It might give us some good experience."

"Sure." Blake nodded.

"Heck yeah! I love it when you're feisty!" Yang smirked.

"Then it's settled, our investigation starts-" Ruby went gray for a moment when she realized something. "I FORGOT MY BOARD GAME!"

"We're doomed." Weiss facepalmed before rushing out of her room in a blur of Rose petals and slamming directly into someone, falling on her back as she groaned.

"W-Whoa?! Watch where you're-" Cinder rubbed her head, now getting up as she then looked to Ruby. "Oh, Ruby!" she offered her hand to the girl and Ruby took it.

"S-Sorry!" Ruby rubbed her head. "Oh right, tonight must be the night visiting students move into the dorms! Well you must be lost." Ruby chuckled a little. "Visiting student dorms are west of here."

"Oh... Thank you." Cinder pat Ruby's head which just made the girl chuckle at little, although behind her Emerald did shoot her a nasty glare while Mercury scoffed a little bit.

"Oh are these your teammates?!" Ruby asked.

"Why yes, Emerald, Mercury say hi to Ruby." Cinder instructed them, Emerald didn't want to say hi, but Mercury waved, Cinder's warm smile turned to a slight scowl as Emerald waved as well before it corrected itself as she looked back to Ruby again.

"Heh, nice to meet you guys." Ruby scratched the back of her head. "Where's your other teammate?"

"Oh she's..." Cinder paused for a moment. "Currently a little preoccupied with unpacking probably. She went ahead of us."

"Well I'll see you guys around!" Ruby smiled waving them off. "Welcome to Beacon!" she called out as Cinder, Emerald and Mercury walked away, the girl being none the wiser to their true intentions.

* * *

**Commentary**: And here we have chapter 2! Now with a little more bloody violence. Yeah... I always felt like Ruby's whole "Best Day Ever" plan not being explored in any degree was a missed opportunity. So here we have it. The team goes shopping around for things we totally won't see in the near future.


	3. Chapter 3: A Minor Hiccup

Class was in session again and unfortunately before Team RWBY could start their investigating, they would have to contend with the first day of classes. Blake seemed as impatient as ever as she looked at the time on her scroll constantly through Professor Port's class.

Yang smirked, raising her hand as Professor Goodwitch called for a Volunteering student for the first round of sparring sessions. She was just as eager as ever to get down and dirty in the field. Her opponent chosen for this sparring match was one of the transfer students from Haven Academy, Arslan Altan was her name and she smiled, bowing as Yang did so in kind. The two got into their stances to fight.

"Show me what Beacon Academy has to offer." Arslan boldly stated, glancing slightly up at Pyrrha who turned away from her, looking slightly distraught as Cardin then sat himself down next to Jaune again with the boy looking as bothered as his partner now. Pyrrha let out a sigh, she had a feeling Cardin would start again.

Yang and Arslan both threw punches at each other with full force. The shockwave knocked both of them out of the arena and also slightly cracked the barriers that Glynda easily repaired with her telekinesis.

"C-Can we get a redo on that?" Yang asked.

Glynda just took a deep breath.

* * *

"UGH! I can't believe Professor Goodwitch didn't let me actually fight!" Yang whined as she sat down in the cafeteria next to Alix whom was mindlessly picking at his own food before he turned his attention back to her.

"Oh, right! Yeah... I think Goodwitch was particularly upset that your team left even when we said we'd cover for you guys..." Alix shoveled a spork full of Mac and Cheese into his mouth.

"Right..." Yang looked back to her teammates who were all discussing things. "I should probably go back over to my team. Thanks for letting me vent my anger to you."

"Any time, Yang." Alix nodded as Yang then went back over to her teammates, while they were all discussing what they'd be doing.

"Alright, so I can pull up my family's records on dust shipments." Weiss explained. "We might be able to find some sort of pattern with the robberies. Maybe there's a specific target in mind."

"I'm aware of how the White Fang usually conducts their recruitment meetings. There's a couple of major locations in Vale. I can check to see if there's any information that might lead us to a location." Blake explained.

"You sure they wouldn't just recognize you?" Weiss asked.

"There's usually a lot of new recruits at these meetings, they'd have to be able to pick me out of a crowd. Of course there's a little more to this than just the recruitment meetings." Blake began.

"The more violent side of the White Fang... Well this is with recent developments. The more violent side of the White Fang has recruitment drives separate from the Normal White Fang. There's a specific marking to signify which side of the White Fang you're joining. There's the public facing side with the protesting, and then there's the more... Militaristic side. They're unfortunately very interlinked here in Vale. The Public facing White Fang provides the cover for the militaristic side. Unfortunately the Current leader of the Vale Branch of the White Fang is looking to absolve the Public Facing side to focus solely on military operations." she looked down sadly.

Yang put a hand on her partner's shoulder to comfort her before a slight smile graced her face. "I know a guy down town. He's involved in a lot of shady dealings, if anyone would know about stuff going on and having to do with Roman Torchwick, it'd most likely be him."

"What're we doing guys?!" Sun asked, eagerly having been eavesdropping on the conversation the whole time with Neptune.

"H-How long have you been standing there?!"

"Oh ever since Yang sat down." Sun chuckled awkwardly.

"Y-Yeah..." Neptune offered a slight laugh.

"Oh um... Sun you don't need to get involved, this is a team thing. I don't want you to get wrapped up in this." Blake reasoned.

"Nonsense, you should always get your friends wrapped up in stuff!" Sun smiled.

"Well then, that settles it!" Ruby proclaimed. "We can break off into groups of two."

"Sun and I can go to the White Fang meeting." Blake nodded, looking over to Sun. "I'll be honest, I had my apprehensions about going alone."

"Great, I'm always glad to be that friend who's there!" Sun pat his chest confidently.

"Yang... You and Neptune can go together." Ruby pointed to Neptune as Weiss pouted.

"You sure Neptune can't go with me?" Weiss asked. "I mean you and Yang are sisters after all..."

There was a pause of silence between the group before Ruby broke out into laughter. "NAH!" she grabbed Weiss by the arm and pulled her along.

"W-Wait!" Weiss tried to argue but couldn't as her leader dragged her off.

"Well if we're going out into town." Yang grinned. "I think we should dress for the occasion, don't you think Blake?"

"Why not?" Blake rolled her eyes.

"Meet you boys by the docks." Yang punched Neptune's shoulder. "Don't be late."

Neptune just looked a bit flustered as Blake and Yang left. "Whoa."

"Heh, feelin' starstruck there, Loverboy?" Sun taunted.

"Ugh, Sun, can you not!" Neptune glared while Sun just laughed.

* * *

Ruby and Weiss were now dressed up in the new outfits they had brought the previous day. Their mission was simple and Ruby had picked codenames for everyone. Ruby chose, 'Slayer' for her nickname, while Weiss's was 'Snowpea', Blake's was 'Intruder' and Yang's was 'Hunter'. Since Sun and Neptune tagged along, Ruby just went with 'Abs' and 'Goggles' for their codenames given by how they were all now listed in their own little group chat.

"So we should be able to pull up my family's records in the Cross Continental Transit Tower." Weiss explained.

"Oooh, it's the big tower where Professor Ozpin's office is, right?" Ruby asked.

"You'd be correct there, Ruby." Weiss smiled, finally feeling a sense of pride in front of her leader. "This transit tower was a gift from Atlas to the Kingdom of Vale. Some say the original Transit tower in Atlas is a gift to the world."

"I'm Weiss, I know facts... I'm rich." Ruby mocked, blowing a raspberry in Weiss's direction.

She rolled her eyes as the two of them entered the tower, scanning their scrolls before getting into the elevator.

Ruby looked at her scroll in boredom as they were waiting in the elevator while Weiss did her best to practice smiling, before stopping and frowning just as the elevator stopped.

"Alright, Ruby I need you to remain quiet while I pull up my family's records." Weiss stated as Ruby nodded while they walked through the tower.

"Whoa... I wonder if I should call home..." Ruby pondered as she followed behind Weiss.

"Terminal 7 is where your call will commence." the holographic AI stated as Weiss nodded, with Ruby following behind her towards that terminal before Weiss shoved her just out of camera's view.

"Sorry Ruby, but I'd rather you not be seen with me for this." Weiss stated.

"Sure... So long as you get what we need."

The call then began with a receptionist at the Schnee Dust company answering.

"Schnee Dust, who am I speaking to?" she looked up to see Weiss. "Oh, Miss Schnee! How may I help you today?"

"I'd like some information." Weiss plugged her scroll into the terminal. "Information about recent dust shipments in Vale."

"Might I ask why you want this information?" the receptionist asked.

"It's for an assignment on economics." Weiss stated, with Ruby nodding and winking while trying to hide a devious giggle.

"Alright, I'll transfer the data over. In the meanwhile. Would you like to talk to your sister Winter? She happens to be in for a call."

"N-No that'll be all I need." Weiss assured.

"And it's done. But... You're certain? Would you like to talk to your father? Or maybe your brother, Whitley?"

"No, it's fine really, I'm... On a bit of a time constraint right now." Weiss lied again.

"Alright then, have a good day, Miss Schnee." the call ended with Weiss letting out a sigh of relief before looking at the information on her scroll.

"We easily could have done this from the library you know."

"Yeah, but the CCT is so cool! I just love it in here!" Ruby beamed as the two made their way to the elevator.

As they exited the building Ruby looked back up to it and saw the perfect opportunity for a photo. "Oh, I've never taken a photo from here!" she fumbled around with her scroll accidentally dropping it. "Not again!" Ruby screamed out, but thankfully before it hit the ground a hand caught it and held it back out to her.

"You dropped this." Penny smiled.

"Penny?" Ruby asked.

"N-No... You're mistaken. HIC!" she suddenly hiccuped and the scroll flew from her hand and into Ruby's who quickly went about taking her picture of the tower and looking back towards Penny.

Weiss was completely focused on reading up on the dust shipments to even notice Penny now as Ruby pouted and followed Penny who was trying to walk away.

"Penny wait!" Ruby sped in front of her. "W-Where did you go?!"

"I-I can't talk about it. I-I don't wanna talk about it with you." she hiccuped again while bumping past Ruby.

"W-Why?! What's going on?!" Ruby grabbed her shoulder.

"I..." Penny looked over her shoulder and around her before taking a deep breath. "We can't talk here. Let's go somewhere more discreet." she suggested, leading Ruby along to the airship docks. Ruby pouted, looking back to Weiss who was still neck deep in reading through the information.

"Sorry Weiss..." Ruby followed after Penny.

Weiss merely glanced up, in confusion now at where Ruby had gone. "Ruby?!" she called out before looking to her scroll. "Why does she always ditch me? I swear, that girl needs a bell or something." she furrowed her eyebrows before starting back towards the dorm building, she'd look through these files herself. There was something off already about what she was seeing.

* * *

In the locker hall Jaune let out a sigh when Cardin showed up in front of him, holding his hand out. "Your notes, just like you wanted."

"Great, buddy." Cardin laughed as Jaune walked away, dejected as Pyrrha, now gritting her teeth in annoyance stepped up to Cardin as soon as Jaune was out of earshot just as Cardin was opening his own locker.

"Cardin." Pyrrha glared.

"Well if it isn't the 'Invincible Girl.' What can I do for you?" Cardin smirked.

"I want you to leave Jaune alone." she crossed her arms.

"Let me think? No." Cardin leaned on his locker now.

"You're making things more difficult for my team." Pyrrha insisted. "We need our leader at his best and as long as he's stuck with you, he can't be at his best."

"Well maybe you'd be interested to hear a little secret about your leader-" before Cardin could continue he was cut off.

"About how he got into Beacon? I know So does the rest of our team. He's improved a lot with my help." Pyrrha smiled. "And he'll continue to improve once you leave him alone."

"Well, Jaune's been a real help to me and my team, and I mean with you being the invincible girl and all, I would think that you don't need a loser like him on your team-" he was cut off again.

"That's enough." Pyrrha glared. "Here's what's going to happen. We'll make a wager."

"A wager?" Cardin tilted his head but decided to listen.

"I will challenge you and your entire team to a sparring match within the next week." she began. "Just me. No one else."

"Alright. What's in it for us?" he asked.

"If you win, you get the honor of being able to declare yourself a better fighter than the 'Invincible Girl'..."

"Alright. But I also want to be able to report Jaune's transcripts to Professor Goodwitch." Cardin smirked.

Pyrrha looked down, deep in thought, but then looked back up. "Fine. However, if I win, you will leave Jaune alone, drop the topic of his transcripts and never use or abuse another student ever again." she glared seriously at him.

"Alright, you're on." the two shook hands on it as Pyrrha stormed off.

Just around the corner Mercury was listening to this entire conversation. "Hmm..." he adjusted his boots as the door closed behind Pyrrha.

* * *

Ruby and Penny sat on a couple of crates in an alleyway several blocks down from the airship docks to Beacon and less than a block from one of Vale's central plazas where the Atlesian Military was giving a technology demonstration.

"So Penny, could you please tell me what happened?" Ruby asked.

Penny nodded. "My father's men had to take me after the ruckus I caused." she admitted.

"Father's men? Are you a rich heiress like Weiss?" Ruby tilted her head.

"Oh, no! I'm just very important to the Atlesian military." she confessed.

"You're related to someone important?"

"Oh, no!" Penny waved her hands but then hiccuped. "W-Well General Ironwood is close friends with my father." she pouted.

"I see, well Penny... We think those guys you helped us stop at the docks might be planning something really bad." Ruby explained. "And maybe your help would be appreciated."

"I'm sorry Ruby I can't help you anymore... I-I'm not allowed to talk to you or your teammates... N-Not that I don't want to!" she assured. "I just, I can't put myself into any more danger before the tournament." she frowned.

"You know Penny... You remind me of my friend Pyrrha." Ruby smiled.

Penny just smiled and was about to say something else when she was cut short when she heard the commotion from the technology demonstration from down the street.

Ruby poked her head out of the alleyway and noticed what was going on.

"And now, it's time for me to show you our newest advancements in security." General Ironwood began over the intercom, as it would happen there were several other identical showcases going on around several different plaza stages around Vale with crowds gathered at each.

"Starting with our new Atlesian Knight 2000 Unit! Stronger, Smarter... Admittedly less Scary." the General joked as the robots all made goof ball poses and flexed their mechanical limbs. "These units also use less energy and with their advanced targeting systems know only to use lethal force on Grimm and not people."

The Robots all held a firm stance as Ironwood continued his presentation. "And now for our greatest innovation in Kingdom Security."

"Ruby..." Penny tugged on her arm slightly, but Ruby was too caught up in this demonstration now as her love for weapons was clearly making her love every second of this.

"The Atlesian Paladin!" Ironwood introduced as a Hologram of a giant bulky mech suit appeared. "These are designed to be controlled by human pilots but they can be swapped out in favor of AI control with the same type of system that our newer Knight models use. "These Atlesian Paladins will do their best to keep our soldiers safe and out of harms way, so they can all return home to their lives after a long day's work." he assured.

Just as he was about to continue, a couple of Atlesian soldiers spotted Penny and Ruby in the alleyway and sent a message for all available units.

Penny immediately grabbed Ruby's wrist and started running with her.

"W-Wait Penny!" Ruby panicked now as she ran with her, spotting the two soldiers in pursuit. Her eyes went wide as she ran behind her.

"T-They really wanna keep you out of harm's way!"

"Y-Yeah!" Penny agreed as they ran with Ruby using her scythe to knock over some trash cans and boxes in the alleyway causing the soldiers to trip up just as they were now running towards a blockade of about several more armed soldiers, holding their hands out for them to stop.

Penny looked around for something as Ruby then spotted an out, grabbing Penny's hand Ruby activated her speed semblance and lifted her up, jumping as high as she can, however Penny had more weight to her than Ruby thought as the duo came crashing down into the street with Ruby landing on her back and groaning, unaware of a truck that was driving right at her.

Penny immediately leaped in front of Ruby and stopped the car with her hands.

Everyone in the street stared in awe at what Penny had just done. "U-Um... Nothing odd to see here folks!" Penny hid her hands in her pockets. "I-It's just my semblance!" she hiccuped loudly before turning to run as Ruby then followed in pursuit of her.

"Penny wait!" Ruby now appeared in front of her with a blur of rose petals.

"S-Sorry Ruby... I-I can't talk." she hiccuped again. "I don't want to talk!" she shook her head before hiccuping yet again.

"Penny, please... Whatever it is... You can tell me." Ruby assured with a warm smile. "Whatever you did there, It was amazing."

Penny looked down, distraught as Ruby put a hand on Penny's shoulder.

"Y-You're my friend right?" Penny asked.

"Of course, I always will be."

"Y-You promise you're my friend?" she asked again.

"Penny, of course." Ruby nodded firmly.

Penny then took her hands out of her pockets to reveal her torn up hands and exposed metal under them.

"I'm not a real girl."

* * *

**Commentary**: The plot twist no one saw coming!(I say that with the upmost Sarcasm) We also get another new character introduction in the form of Arslan Altan! I gave Team JNPR a little something to do this chapter, although this is mainly to give some narrative and build up to Pyrrha vs CRDL. Next chapter we get Robots and Rose Petals in a night club. Or something along those lines.


	4. Chapter 4: Painting the Town

"Penny I don't understand." Ruby was very confused now at what Penny had just told her.

"Most girls are born... B-But unlike them... I was made, in a lab." she explained. "I'm the world's first Synthetic person, capable of generating an aura."

"Whoa..." Ruby was impressed. "That does kind of explain all that cool stuff you were able to do before..."

"R-Ruby please don't tell anyone about this." Penny took hold of Ruby's hand as she peered around the corner of the alley where some soldiers were closing in on her location.

"My father built me. He's just the sweetest. I'm sure you would love him." Penny smiled as the soldiers were getting even closer, judging from all the chatter that Penny was hearing. "Mr. Ironwood helped as well..."

"That would explain why the military's so protective of you. But why weaponize you so much?" Ruby asked. "We're living in a time of peace..."

"That's not what Mr. Ironwood told me." Penny pouted before the chatter was starting to get closer now.

"Listen Ruby, I've got to hide you before the men come back." she picked Ruby up before she had time to react.

"P-Penny wait! I could help you out ya know!" she was thrown right into a dumpster.

"It's alright Ruby, it's as I said... They just like protecting me too. I'll keep in touch." she held her scroll up before putting it away as the men approached while she sat on the dumpster.

"Penny, what have you been doing? You know your father wouldn't want you wandering around here... Especially with troublemakers like that girl... Speaking of which, where is she?" the soldier asked.

"W-What do you mean? I've been alone!" she hid her hiccup with a slight cough.

"Are you alright?" the soldier asked as she then held her hands out.

"J-Just a scratch." she sheepishly smiled while the soldier and the other soldiers gathered around collectively sighed and dispersed, leaving only two to escort her to get her hands fixed.

Ruby smiled a bit, watching through a crack in the dumpster. They were just like a big protective family. Something behind her squeaked which made Ruby fall back in a panic.

* * *

Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee whirred louder than ever as it drove down the streets of Vale with Yang and Neptune as it's passengers. Yang was wearing only her helmet while Neptune wore his goggles and a clearly smaller helmet intended for Ruby since it was red and had Ruby's symbol. Neptune was also riding in a side car attachment.

The Motorcycle came to a screeching halt out in front of the entrance to a night club as Yang got off her motorcycle shaking her head, her hair straightening itself out immediately while Neptune had to mess with his hair in front of one of the rear view mirrors after getting the helmet off.

"C'mon, my shady buddy is in here!" Yang insisted, walking ahead of Neptune.

On the inside of the club all the men were panicking now as they held the door shut and were waving their arms around. "BOSS, SHE'S BACK!" one of the men screamed Junior furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance.

"What are you morons doing?!" It would be that instant that he would find out what was going on as an explosion forced the door open as Yang entered boldly.

"Guess who's back?!" she held her hands up eagerly in a shrugging motion as every gun that all of Junior's goons had recently gotten was trained on her now.

She then glared as the music track seemed to be stuck looping the same moment. DJ D3ADB3AR quickly corrected that by taking the needle off the turntable.

"W-W-Wait! Hold your fire! Before you guys tear up my club, might I ask what you're here for?!" Junior asked Yang.

"I'm here to ask you a question. But first..." Yang grabbed his arm and dragged him along with her. "You owe me a drink."

"Whew... I would hate to be on her bad side..." Neptune chuckled in awe of her.

"You wouldn't..." Melanie stated.

"Believe me." Militia affirmed.

"Hey ladies." Neptune winked.

The two just rolled their eyes and followed Yang and Junior. Neptune let out a sigh in defeat before following after the group.

* * *

Blake and Sun cautiously approached the entrance to a large abandoned warehouse both wearing Grimm masks as Blake saw the 3 white markings on the side of the wall next to the door, signifying that this was the right meeting.

"So why are we wearing Grimm masks again?" Sun asked.

"Humanity chose to see us as monsters, so we chose to don the faces of monsters." Blake explained.

"Sounds kind of dark." Sun remarked.

"The guy who started it..." Blake paused for a long moment. "He was someone I once respected. The Grimm masks have more or less become the symbol of the more militant White Fang unfortunately." she let out a sigh before the two entered the warehouse for the meeting.

"Settle down into your places everyone!" The White Fang Lieutenant stepped out onto the platform that acted almost like a stage. "Now we're all very glad you could join us today!" he began. "New Brothers and sisters, I ask of you, do you swear your blood to the White Fang?"

Everyone in the room cheered as the Lieutenant raised his arms to settle them down. "Excellent. Now we may properly begin this recruitment drive in which I, along with a good benefactor of ours will showcase our newest tools in our revolution against humanity."

The Lieutenant looked to behind the large banner on the platform, obviously signaling for this 'benefactor' to step out.

"Now then, this benefactor of ours, while he may not be of our kind, he has so generously gifted us his direct support... Allow me to welcome out, Roman Torchwick!"

Roman Torchwick stepped out onto the platform to the thunderous... Booing.

"What's a human doing here?!"

"GET HIM OFF STAGE!"

"KILL THE HUMAN!" Various faunus in the crowd were shouting.

"Now now, before you go all feral on me." Roman chuckled a bit at his joke, Neo was notably standing a safe distance away on the stage, but couldn't help but chuckle herself at the joke.

"Allow me to have my word in." Roman began as the crowd grew silent, mainly because of the Lieutenant raising a hand up for them to stop and they did. "How do you do that? And here I thought I'd need a dog whistle or something. Granted, that'd only work on about half the crowd."

The Lieutenant crossed his arms and motioned for Roman to continue.

"Right, right. So... I understand you hate humanity. You hate them because we're horrible, we're disrespectful, we purposefully take opportunities away from you and you just wish you could punish us like the scum we are. Case and point." he gestured to himself.

"They're all to blame, their institutions, their governments... Their academies." he gripped his cane a little tightly at that last one. "What I can provide for you is the means of fighting back you've so longed for."

"Get on with it!" a woman with deer ears yelled out.

"Alright then, 'Deery'. I'll get right to the point!" he motioned to Neo who pressed a button back stage and revealed an Atlesian Paladin. "My employer managed to nab a few of these hot off the Atlesian presses! Now, they are only the prototype models, but I can assure you these Atlesian Paladins are ready for human piloting and will be an integral weapon of your revolution." he explained while now scanning the crowd. There was this feeling that someone familiar was there, but he couldn't pinpoint who.

"How did he get that thing?" Blake asked, looking to Sun.

Sun just shrugged his shoulders.

"Now then, if you're gearing up to join you can either stay here and comfortable in Vale till your time comes. Or, if you want to be proactive in your revolution against Humanity, come to the Southeastern side of Vale and join your brothers and sisters in making history." Roman smirked as the crowd was now cheering for him after all the information he had just provided.

* * *

Weiss was having a hard time in the library trying to find out a pattern in the shipment records of the dust. She was onto something but there was something off... All this dust after it got into Vale it wasn't sold, her father's company was at a loss yet they were still sending more dust into Vale, likely her father's attempt to profit off of the Vytal Festival as she presumed.

Her scroll rang with a call from her father that obscured the top of her screen. "..." she hung up instinctively before continuing to look and furrowing her eyebrows.

"Having trouble with something?" the voice of Cinder Fall asked as Weiss' almost screamed from how sudden the foreign student's approach was.

"Oh, it's just you, Cinder." Weiss exhaled deeply as Cinder smiled, sitting across from her at the table.

"Let me see what you're looking at." she held her hand out.

"I... I don't know. This is some confidential information." Weiss stated.

Cinder's eyes narrowed for a moment before she then softened her glare. "Oh it's fine. I was just going to suggest maybe trying to look at your problem from a different angle." she reasoned.

"A different angle?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, if you're looking at confidential information say from the perspective of a member of your family or family's company, at least I'm assuming here, you're likely to miss a detail. But if you're looking at information from the perspective of an outsider, you're more likely to recognize what might be off..." she suggested.

Weiss took a deep breath. "Alright, promise me you won't call me reckless or anything."

"I assure you, whatever it is you're looking into and whatever it's for. I won't judge." Cinder assured.

"Well... Do you remember what happened at the docks?"

"Of course, that was the most action I've seen in a while." the raven haired student nodded.

"Well, my teammates and I..." Weiss sighed. "Along with a couple of friends, are investigating further into this. I'm looking into the dust robberies that have been happening and to do that-"

"You're looking at your family's recent shipping records in Vale." Cinder finished. "Impressive." she complimented. "Already being proactive. I'm sure you'll be a great huntress."

"Of course I will. But you need to keep this on the down low. We don't have anything solid to give to the authorities. We're not going to come forward till we have a substantial location that could lead to to the arrest of the person behind this all." Weiss affirmed.

"And who might that be?" Cinder asked.

"Obviously it's Roman Torchwick." Weiss reasoned. "He's the one who was leading them at the docks and also he's the one that's been robbing various dust depots and shipments. He's practically caused dust prices to rise in Vale just from the first month of robberies alone, let alone these past few months."

"I see..." Cinder paused. "Well, just remember my advice Ms. Schnee. Try to look at your problems from an outside angle." she bowed her head. "I need to go train with my team. I'll see you around." she smiled before walking off.

Weiss's eyes narrowed before looking back to her scroll, now thinking about what Cinder had told her before it clicked as she was now looking at a map of the dust shipments in conjecture with the chain of recent robberies. "Of course!"

* * *

Yang slammed her drink onto the table and let out a burp as she leaned over the counter slightly. "Spill it already, Junior! Before I spill you!" Yang insisted.

"I suppose there's no skirting around this issue... I better not get on Little Miss's Bad side for this." Junior lamented.

"Who?" Yang asked.

"Oh... Um... Melanie and Militia's mother." Junior explained as the twins were clearly trying to mind their own business while Neptune was trying to flirt more. "She's very powerful where they're from."

"I see..." Yang noted before turning towards Junior. "Now then, I remember seeing Roman Torchwick in your club the moment I walked in last Summer." Yang crossed her arms. "Tell me where he is now and what he's planning with the White Fang. Also maybe some context on why he was here might be good."

"I don't know where he is now." Junior began. "But he was in my club to buy the services of some of my men... Who never returned."

"Why didn't they return though?!" Neptune interjected now, rather suddenly approaching.

"Honestly... I wouldn't know, but I'm willing to bet he was disappointed with what he got. Something I myself can relate to." Junior glared at several of his men who were goofing off on their jobs now.

"What about his plan?" Yang asked.

"He's got something planned in Mountain Glenn. At least according to one of my White Fang connections. But I wouldn't go there if I were you. From what I've heard they're preparing for war there, I'm talking weapons of war and a good portion of that stolen dust being used." Junior took a sip from a shot glass.

"Thank you." Yang smiled as she then got up. "We got what we came here for-"

"Hey, Blondie, Sir! Wait just a second!" Junior called out to her.

"Hmm?" Yang turned to face him now.

"It was painfully obvious Roman wasn't happy with my men's services. I just remembered."

"What do you mean?" Yang crossed her arms.

"He sent... He sent his right hand woman here after that robbery was a bust and she was NOT happy. If you see her, I'd be careful. She's short, pink and brown hair and not someone to be reckoned with..."

"I've seen her." Yang remarked. "I'll keep an eye out. But you should know, there's not a person I can't handle! Just because you and your boys had trouble, doesn't mean I will!" she chuckled confidently. "Also, any new lead on that person in the picture?"

"..." Junior let out a sigh.

"I thought so." Yang then grabbed Neptune's shoulder and jerked him along with her. "C'mon, we're done here."

"Aww and I was really getting to like the place..." Neptune winked to the twins who both just rolled their eyes as Yang led him out.

* * *

"Would all new recruits step forward!" the White Fang Lieutenant called out as Blake took a hesitant step back. Sun stayed still and scanned around the recruits for anyone that might have been out of place.

Roman's eyes finally found what they were looking for as he threw his cigar down and smirked, gesturing to Neo whom was starting to step out from back stage.

"Uh Blake, this is bad..." Sun remarked.

"I know..." Blake was looking around now for something that'd help cover their escape. "Sun... Cover your eyes... Now!" she insisted as she then shot at the Junction box which caused the lights to shut off in a sudden bright flash, blinding everyone in the room except for her and Sun as they made their escape.

"DONT LET THEM GET AWAY!" Roman's voice called out.

"AFTER THEM!" the voice of another faunus in the room yelled. Suddenly some lights went on in the room and the sound of mechanical whirring was heard.

Blake and Sun both jumped out of the window on the second floor of the warehouse, landing on a roof, with Sun and Blake throwing their masks down. Oddly enough Blake was wearing a familiar pair of aviators before she tucked them into her pocket.

"What were those doing there?!" Sun asked.

"Yang lent them to me, Dunno why, but I guess I had a feeling they'd come in handy there!" she remarked as the Paladin came crashing through a wall of the warehouse and was now pursuing them on the streets below.

Blake then called for her teammates.

In Team RWBY's dorm room Weiss answered the call. "Blake?! What's going on?!"

"We need back up now!" Blake insisted.

"HELP!" Sun yelled which nearly blew the speakers off Weiss's scroll, much to her annoyance.

"They've got a mech and it's really big!" Sun explained. "Oh and that Torchwick guy's piloting it too!"

"Oh I am not missing this." Ruby grinned as she threw her can of soda down into a trash before starting to trace down the call's location. It seemed she had side tracked herself and decided to get some snacks before reporting back, well at least before this came up.

Ruby then noticed something about the direction Blake and Sun were headed. "Weiss, Blake I have an idea!" Ruby insisted.

"Where are you guys?!" Yang asked, as her scroll was still taking some time to track their locations.

"WE'RE RUNNING!" Sun yelled in ear shot of Yang and Neptune.

"I think that was them." Neptune remarked as Yang hopped onto her motorcycle with Neptune sitting in the side car and the two sped off in pursuit.

Blake and Sun jumped onto cars on the highway. "SPEED UP PLEASE!" Sun yelled as the cars him and Blake were on sped up considerably when the Paladin leaped onto the highway and started barreling through cars and now opened fire onto the two. Blake and Sun jumped to other cars as Roman then aimed at Sun, with Sun deflecting the bullets fired from the Paladin with his staff while Blake shot at it, her weapon's shots proving rather ineffectual at denting the armor of the Paladin mech.

It was then that Bumblebee sped onto the highway now with Yang and Neptune in pursuit from behind.

Roman inside the mech spotted the motorcycle behind him. "More?!" he grunted angrily as he then slammed through several more cars in an attempt to knock Bumblebee off the Road with debris.

Yang moved her motorcycle to the side and barely slid under a car that flipped over her as Neptune then took his weapon off his back and transformed it into it's rail gun form, firing off several shots at the Mech, that notably caused it's alarm censors to go off upon impact as there were some visible scuff marks on the Paladin's armor.

Sun, now landing atop a truck activated his semblance which created two astral copies of himself that then rushed forward and collided with Roman's mech, doing little to make it slow down as it rampaged through the highway.

It was then that Weiss, jumping down from a higher bridge on the highway landed. "I'm in position!" she stated as she then stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground and froze it as Roman attempted to run her down, only to trip and fall off the highway and down to the underpass where Ruby was waiting for him.

The rest of Ruby's teammates along with Sun and Neptune landed beside her. Sun and Neptune boldly rushed forward, Sun slamming his staff into the side of the mech, a shockwave rattling it, as Neptune, now transforming his weapon into a trident stabbed between a couple of joints on the side of the Paladin, causing it to rattle even more before Neptune then realized his weapon was stuck and the mech spun around, flinging Neptune and his weapon away along with smacking Sun into a pillar across the underpass, shattering his aura as Neptune groaned upon sitting up and looking to his teammate, he'd have no choice but to keep watch over him for the time being.

"Freezerburn!" Ruby called out as Weiss again froze the ground and Yang, leaping into the air slammed her fist into it with her weapon firing a shot creating a mist in the air that affected the Paladin's sensors.

Roman scanned around now with his eyes, his sensors rendered ineffective. "Damn Prototypes..." he grunted in annoyance before he then saw a blur out the corner of his eye and fired a shot.

The shot knocked Yang several feet away before Ruby flew right at the Mech and slashed it, causing it to stagger back a couple of steps while then reloading her weapon. "Checkmate!" she called out.

Weiss and Blake rushed forward and started to attack the Paladin's legs with a flurry of slashes, Weiss managing to stab one of the sensors on the leg, now causing a slight overload as Roman made the mech's leg kick forward, slamming into Weiss before Weiss, activating her semblance sent an orange glyph to Blake's feet. The glyph had a clock in it as Blake suddenly felt powered up.

Grunting in annoyance at Blake, Roman launched a volley of missiles at her. Blake glanced up, the orange aura still around her as she then slashed at the first missile that came her way before following up towards all the subsequent missiles, cutting them all down with relative ease as the glow vanished and Ruby came forward.

"Ladybug!" she called out as Blake smirked a bit. Ruby firing a shot off behind her and Blake pushing forward off of a clone as the two kept slashing back and forth at the Paladin's front and back before the two girls came down at it, full force and sliced off one of the paladin's arms, causing it to stagger back more as Ruby then fired a gravity dust round at it, causing it to stagger slightly forward now as Yang finally saw an opening present itself.

Yang leaped right onto the mech and started to lay into it with Ember Celica. "**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA**!" she yelled as she created a large crack in the Prototype Paladin's armor and Roman actually took a hit from this attack with the inside of the Paladin starting to smoke.

Roman then activated backwards thrusters and dashed backwards with the mech, slamming Yang through several large concrete pillars before finally taking this chance to turn around and unfold the paladin's arm, punching Yang right in the face and slamming her through another concrete pillar.

"Yang!" Blake called out in a panic, firing shots off at the Paladin now as it turned it's attention back to her.

Ruby then grabbed Blake's wrist and made her lower her weapon. "It'll be okay." Ruby smiled confidently as the mech approached them while Weiss was starting to get up, holding her side slightly.

The mech threw a punch out at Ruby and Blake, but it never made contact as Yang, having gotten up, propelled herself forward with a shot from her gauntlets and caught the Paladin's fist with her hands.

"Don't you remember Blake?" Ruby took a couple of steps back while Blake watched in awe, Yang's hair was now glowing a burning gold color as she then held the Paladin's arm in one hand and raised her other fist up.

_It was just fine, _

_We lived in peace_

_Looked to a happy ending_

"**ORAAAAAA**!" she yelled as she shattered the paladin's other arm in a single blow.

_The days were bright,_

_They shined like Gold,_

_Every step ascending_

"Yang's semblance allows her to take the damage an enemy gives her, and send it right back to them."

The Paladin, then kicked Yang, sending her flying now.

_Our dreams came true,_

_Our Path was clear, _

_The Moon watched safely from above,_

"Bumblebee!" Ruby called out as Blake threw her weapon out, with Yang catching it and spinning Yang around and firing shots behind her to increase her speed, the Paladin was barely able to dodge them as Ruby then looked to Weiss.

_But every smile is not the same,_

_And every heart's not filled with Love,_

_For Mankind..._

"We need to slow it down." Weiss insisted.

_Look around it's getting very hard to find,_

_Not every open wound is simply healed by time,_

_But revenge is always sweet,_

_And Chaos is the Prize!_

"Ice Flower!" Ruby called out as Weiss created a glyph in front of Ruby while she took aim with Crescent Rose, now loaded with an ice clip of dust as Ruby fired shots off at the paladin, creating large shards of ice in the mech and freezing it in place before Yang, now at maximum speed let go of Blake's weapon and slammed her fist into the Mech, creating a massive dent before sending it flying and causing it to shatter upon impact, leaving a defenseless Roman at the team's mercy now.

_Feel it everywhere and you see it growing_

_Enemies arise and the hate is flowing_

_Shattering the moon and bloodying the sky!_

"Ugh... I just got this thing cleaned off!" Roman groaned at the dirt on his coat now.

_The Machines of war will fuel both sides,_

_And the Greed will only grow more lies,_

The four fired shots off at Roman but the shots only hit the top of an umbrella as Neo landed right in front of Roman.

"Ah, I'd love to stick around but I have to go. Lovely time as always, ladies... Ice Queen." he remarked.

"HEY!" Weiss's eye twitched slightly.

"Neo, if you would..." Roman insisted as Neo bowed forward.

_Farewell to the days of peace because it's time to die!_

Yang immediately rushed forward and threw a punch out, the two starting to crack like a glass wall in front of her as Yang grit her teeth and threw out several more punches in rage, shattering layer after layer of glass before the last layer finally shattered and an airship was starting to speed off into the distance with Blake now stepping forward and firing off several shots at the ship, the shots only harmlessly bouncing off as she stomped her foot onto the ground in annoyance. "DAMMIT ALL!"

Yang and Blake both shared a rather annoyed glare at their enemies escape as Weiss stepped forward.

"Well um... I guess she really made our plans... Fall apart?" Weiss held a hand up, hoping for a slight laugh.

Ruby couldn't hold back a slight chuckle while Yang rolled her eyes and Blake ran her hands through her hair in annoyance.

"Now really wasn't the time for that." she sighed.

"Wrong timing?" Weiss asked.

"That and it just wasn't good." Yang rolled her eyes.

"Well at least I tried!" Weiss pouted.

"Say did you guys get any solid leads?!" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, they're planning something in Mountain Glenn." Yang crossed her arms.

"At the meeting they confirmed the Southeastern side of Vale, which is where Mountain Glenn is." Blake affirmed.

"Well, what I found in my family records confirms that too." Weiss nodded.

"Guys... Where did Sun and Neptune go?" Ruby also asked. That was a good question as the four girls looked around for them.

Sun and Neptune both sat at a Ramen stand eating a couple of bowls of Ramen. "That really got me good." Sun groaned, holding his side slightly before continuing to eat his ramen. "You sure they'll be fine?"

"Oh trust me, they will be." Neptune assured as he kept eating his ramen.

* * *

**Commentary**: Time for this chapter! I had fun with this one when I wrote it, gave Sun and Neptune more active rolls and I actually showed Weiss looking through the documents and getting some unexpected help from Cinder. Then of course we can't forget the mech fight that was just a ton of fun to write, and I also did make clear that this paladin is a prototype so of course it isn't as good as it could be.


	5. Chapter 5: Extracurricular

Pyrrha Nikos was gearing up in the locker hall, sliding her gloves onto her arms, putting the last of her leg armor on and finally placing her tiara onto her head as she then grabbed her weapons out of her locker and stepped out into the Amphitheater.

Team CRDL was standing in formation as the timer for the sparring match ticked down with Pyrrha holding a firm stance as two members, Cardin and Russel, stood in front of her, while the two other members, Sky and Dove were behind her.

"You're going to regret picking this fight, Nikos." Cardin smirked confidently while Pyrrha said nothing as the timer for the match hit 0. Pyrrha immediately went for Cardin but ducked from a swipe of Sky's halberd, countering with a kick to his stomach before then slashing her weapon in it's sword form at Dove, who blocked her attacks before Russel rushed in and slashed at her with both daggers in his hands, burn dust activated and brushing past Pyrrha's face as she then transformed her weapon into it's spear form and fired a shot off, causing it's reach to temporarily extend and knock Russel backwards.

Pyrrha then rushed at Cardin who attempted to swing at her, but ducking forward, he only hit her shield while she then swung upwards with her lance and then downward, hitting Cardin's head before leaping up and attempting to stab downwards at the team leader who rolled out of the way.

Dove made an attempt to attack her while she was focused on Cardin but she threw her Milo at him, causing him to stagger back long enough for her to trip him and catch her spear as Sky Lark made an attempt to slash at her, only to be blocked her her shield and countered with slashes from Milo that was now transformed back into a sword. She continued, firing off a couple of shots, via quickly transforming her weapon to and from it's rifle form as Sky was having a hard time keeping up with her, only to be sent flying behind Cardin.

Cardin then blocked two slashes Pyrrha attempted to attack him with and then activated the dust in his weapon as he slammed it into the ground, creating an explosion that tore up the floor in the arena. Cardin didn't stop there, he swung at Pyrrha with his mace, only to be met with Akouo, blocking the attack. Sky then slashed downward at Pyrrha's legs, forcing her to jump in order to dodge just at the same time Cardin was making an attempt to hit her, hitting her shield and causing her to spin in midair.

Pyrrha kept this momentum from Cardin's hit going as she then spun herself around on the floor and tripped Sky and rolled backward to dodge an attempted punch from Cardin.

She then vaulted over Cardin's shoulder and threw Akouo at him, the shield bouncing off his head and right at Sky's head before she then backflipped and landed right onto him, shattering his aura with that attack and then rushing forward as the remaining members of CRDL all rushed at her.

Crouching on one knee, Pyrrha fired off several shots at the three, one shot grazing Cardin's shoulder while Russel jumped in front of him and deflected the rest of them. Russel then, activating wind dust in his daggers leaped forward, rolling almost like a Boarbatusk would as he then planted his feet firmly on Akouo, causing Pyrrha to stagger back, providing an opening for his teammates that they capitalized on, Dove and him both attacking Pyrrha with a flurry of attacks that she had difficulty deflecting before backing away in order to give Cardin a chance to attack as well with him yelling as he swung his mace forward.

Pyrrha rolled forward and then fired off two more shots in Cardin's direction that he deflected with ease before attempting to follow up, only to be kneed in the throat by Pyrrha who then kept up her assault with a flurry of slashes that he was having a difficult time parrying with many of Pyrrha's slashes easily breaking through his defense, forcing him to back off as Russel ran forward and stabbed at Pyrrha with his daggers, Pyrrha easily weaving from side to side in order to avoid these attacks, transforming her lance into it's spear form again and spinning it around her neck and throwing her shield at Russel, knocking him backwards and then firing a shot off with her spear, making it extend forward and hit Russel, making him fall back, now out of the battle as his aura had dipped below the point of continuing.

Dove came forward now blocking Pyrrha's attacks as she caught her shield and he fired off several shots from his sword's revolver chamber that she blocked with her shield before swiping forward. Dove leaped over the attack and landed on his feet just as Cardin ran foward and reeling his mace back, hit dove, knocking him backwards and also preventing him from being able to resume the fight now.

Cardin then, activating the dust in his weapon, launched an explosive wave of fire at Pyrrha that she backflipped in order to dodge before glaring in Cardin's direction and slashing at him several times, with him being unable to keep her from knocking him into the air as she then followed him up. She kept her assault going slashing vertically and horizontally, transforming her weapon to and from it's three main forms, before finally bounding off her shield and leaping right over Cardin, wrapping her spear around his throat and slamming him right into the ground, his aura breaking right on the spot.

Pyrrha herself landed right on her feet and her shield fell right back into her hands as Professor Goodwitch stepped forward. "Excellent, that will conclude this match. Amazing display Miss Nikos, you'll have no problem qualifying for the Vytal Festival."

Pyrrha glared down at Cardin as he stood himself up while Professor Goodwitch was taking down notes.

"Lucky shot..." Cardin grunted. "But..." he let out a sigh. "A deal's a deal... I don't even know what you see in that loser." he walked off with the rest of his team to lick his wounds.

"Now then, we have enough time for one more sparring match today. Is there any volunteers?" Glynda asked.

Several hands shot up, among them was Arslan, Yang, and a couple of other transfer students.

Blake wasn't looking too great, with bags under her eyes and her struggling to stay awake in class.

"Miss Belladonna, you haven't had a match in a while why don't you-" Glynda was interrupted when a male student loudly cleared his throat.

"Ahem!" Mercury Black stood up. "I'd like to go." he insisted.

"Alright Mr. Black." Professor Goodwitch was starting to ready the display screen to show Mercury's aura. "Who will your opponent be?"

Mercury glanced around at everyone in the room, with Yang beaming and eagerly holding her hand up.

"Her." he pointed to Pyrrha.

"Me?" she was surprised.

"Miss Nikos just went, she's not in the best condition to continue fighting right now."

"Professor, I'd be happy to oblige." Pyrrha smiled as Mercury started to exit the stands.

Mercury stepped forward, readying his combat stance as Pyrrha waited as well till the timer hit 0.

Immediately Mercury rushed forward and threw a kick out in Pyrrha's direction, Pyrrha blocking it with her shield and slashing at his leg, causing him to fall backwards, but he quickly caught himself and backflipped several times, landing a safe distance away from her.

The two stared each other down before Pyrrha ran at him and made an attempt to slash at Mercury, with him raising a leg to block and immediately switching his legs to attack Pyrrha. Pyrrha easily raised her shield to block Mercury's attempted counterattack and bashed him with her shield, causing him to slide back a few feet.

"Hmph." Mercury seemed impressed from Pyrrha's skill as he gave a brief nod.

"Wow, your teammate sure is good." Ruby grinned from the stands, talking to Cinder and Emerald.

"He sure is." Cinder remarked with a friendly smile.

Emerald shot a brief smile to Ruby before she turned her attention back to the match. The moment Ruby's back was turned, Emerald rolled her eyes, only to get elbowed in the gut by Cinder who shot her a slight glare which made her put on the fake smile again.

Mercury leaped up and threw a spin kick at Pyrrha that she blocked with her shield, nearly knocking it from her hand before following up with a couple more spin kicks that Pyrrha dodged by rolling back from.

Mercury then rushed forward and jumped up kicking forward with both of his legs at Pyrrha's shield before he landed on his feet and kicked her shield and then her arm that was holding Milo, knocking it from her hand briefly as he then kicked her shield arm again and then made an attempt to attack her unarmed side, however Pyrrha raised an arm up to block the impact of the kick.

She then caught Milo in her hand again as Mercury kept his momentum going and spun himself around and knocked Milo out of her hand again, the sword stabbing into the ground as he smirked at his opening on the invincible girl.

He threw a kick out at her that she repelled with a slight use of her semblance, causing him to falter off course.

"Hmm..." he smirked, likely having realized something just happened as Pyrrha ran at him again, this time he jumped onto her shield and a shot fired out from his boots, launching him further away from Pyrrha as she then ran forward.

He stepped out of the arena. "I forfeit!" he called out as the match ended abruptly, with Pyrrha stopping herself at the arena's edge.

"You forfeit?" she asked.

"You heard me. You're a world class athlete... I didn't stand a chance." he snidely remarked as Pyrrha pouted in slight annoyance at his actions, putting a hand on her hip.

"You don't even want to try?"

"Nope." Mercury shook his head. "I guess I need to choose my matches better." he shrugged his shoulders, shooting a glance to his teammates in the stands.

Cinder smiled, as did Emerald, this time a more genuine smile before the sparring sessions were called and everyone was dismissed.

* * *

As everyone was exiting classes Blake hung behind all the groups of students before starting to turn away to walk off on her own when her shoulder was suddenly grabbed by Sun, who approached her. "So I was thinking... You know... Um..." Sun looked back towards his teammates. Neptune was busy looking at his reflection in his scroll while Sage and Scarlet were both facepalming.

Sun then took a deep breath. "There's this dance thing coming up tomorrow night and I was um... wondering if you'd like to go with me?"

Blake scoffed in annoyance and moved his hand from her shoulder. "I don't have time for a stupid dance. I thought you of all people would get that." she insisted before walking off back to the dorm building.

"Well that could have gone better." Yang remarked as Sun sighed before sadly walking away just as Alix, one of the three dopey blondes that Team RWBY was all too familiar with approached.

"Sup girls! Is... Blake still being all shut off?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah..." Ruby let out a sigh.

"Ever since last week." Yang shook her head.

"I wish I could have helped or something." Alix lamented.

"Yeah, with that semblance of yours you probably could have just yoinked him out of the mech." Ruby joked.

"What is Alix's semblance anyway?" Weiss asked curiously.

"Oh Alix can phase in and out of solid matter for short times. " Yang explained.

"I can go for about 5 seconds max. It's not as useful as you'd think, I need precise timing to dodge anything flying at me. I doubt I'd have been able to do anything with it there." Alix shook his head before briefly demonstrating as he briefly became see-through only to immediately revert to normal.

"So any reason you're here?" Yang asked.

"Oh, well I just wanted to ask if anyone knows of someone in need of a dance partner? My teammates all got someone to go with... But I kind of am the odd one out." Alix confessed.

"Eh well going to the dance alone isn't that bad." Ruby assured. "I mean I'm not going with anyone really." she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, I unfortunately don't have much time for dancing." Yang shook her head. "Ever since Team CFVY left on that mission, we were put in charge of the Beacon dance by them..."

"Yes, and we've planned out a wonderful event for everyone!" Weiss smiled.

"Still miffed about the fog machines." Yang huffed.

"Well, Coco said no fog machines. Do you really wanna go against her suggestions?" Ruby asked.

"I know, I know... It would have made for some killer atmosphere though."

"Well, I see you three are busy..." Alix scratched the back of his head. "L-Let me know if I can help in any way. I'd be happy to help you guys!" he waved before walking off.

"That, Alix." Yang shook her head.

"Speaking of teammates... What're we going to do about Blake?" Weiss asked. "She's been driving herself crazy over what happened last week. We don't have any jurisdiction or any reasoning to send ourselves out to the Southeastern quadrant of Vale and we can't exactly go to the authorities and tell them what happened on the Highway was partially our fault without tarnishing our reputations before the tournament."

"There has to be some way we can do something!" Ruby crossed her arms. "Oh, if Uncle Qrow were here he'd know what we could do!"

"Eh, I dunno sis..." Yang took a step forward. "I think we just need to gather ourselves." she reasoned. "All of us need to pull our heads together and I'm sure we'll come up with an idea. But to do that." she looked to the library building. "We'll need to get Blake to come to the dance."

"You sure you can handle this sis?" Ruby asked.

"Well we're partners." Yang assured.

"But you're supposed to help me with setting up the Ballroom equipment." Weiss pouted.

"Ruby'll help you!" Yang waved Weiss off as she started towards the dorm building.

"Maybe we should put that stuff off... At least for now" Ruby insisted. "I mean, Blake's our teammate too, isn't she?"

Weiss let out a sigh. "I suppose we could all give Blake an intervention."

The two ran after Yang to provide her assistance.

* * *

Mercury laid on the carpet of Team CMNE's dorm room as Emerald was looking at her scroll, Cinder was sewing an outfit and their mysterious fourth teammate was sitting by the window, looking outside, her green hues staring out of the window.

"Next up is Pyrrha Nikos." Emerald stated.

"Pyrrha Nikos's semblance is polarity." Mercury began. "She was able to move my boot around to her will without much issue. But she only made slight adjustments."

"She's not reliant on her semblance?" Emerald asked. "Or perhaps she doesn't tell people her semblance in order to give herself an advantage?" she looked back over to Cinder who seemed to nod in agreement with her second point.

"Interesting... " Cinder smiled as she threaded the needle through the outfit she was working on. "Some say she's fated for victory, but she's really just taken fate into her own hands. Add her to the list."

"Done." Emerald smirked as she registered Pyrrha to a mysterious database on her scroll.

"You shouldn't have much problem taking her down." Mercury chuckled.

"Mercury, strength isn't the only means of obtaining victory. There's more to defeating your enemy than overpowering them... Sometimes it's better to take away that power they have over you so they can never use it again."

Mercury just scoffed a bit in annoyance now before he switched to doing sit ups now.

"Touchy subject?" Cinder asked with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "Apologies. But I can assure you, we will have our way. In time."

"I hate waiting." Mercury lamented.

"Don't worry, Mercury. We have a very fun weekend planned." Cinder smirked as she was finished sewing.

* * *

"You what?!" Blake was very irritated now.

"We want you to go to the dance." Weiss insisted.

"We don't have time for this!" Blake furrowed her eyebrows. "Roman's still out there in the Southeastern quadrant of Vale, planning his next move! And if we don't act-"

"Lives could be lost... I know." Yang crossed her arms. "But there's no sense freaking out about it here and tirelessly trying to figure out how we're gonna get ourselves there without any direct support from the school or the local huntsmen."

"This is ridiculous, I don't have time for this." Blake tried to get up, but Ruby blocked the door now.

"No." Weiss huffed. "You've hardly been eating, you don't sleep and your grades recently haven't been great."

"I have more important things to worry about! C'mon Weiss you were all for this!"

"Yes and I found that the robberies are all just in Vale, there hasn't been robberies in any other Kingdom lately, meaning all that's going on is happening just in Vale and not the rest of the world. Not to mention, it's through my father's company that some of those Atlesian weapons have been provided, likely how Torchwick got his hands on those Paladins."

"Kind of weird how the General's been keeping that fact under wraps." Yang crossed her arms in a huff.

"But there's still more unanswered questions! We need to find out what exactly their attack plan is! When they're attacking!" Blake clenched her fist tightly.

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open." Ruby argued.

"All we're asking is just for one night of your time." Yang insisted.

"We'll make it fun, after all this is an event planned by us!" Weiss folded her hands together.

"And once we've gotten our rest, we can return to our search, more clear-minded and able to put our heads together for an idea!" Ruby pointed out.

"I think..." Blake paused. "That this is a colossal waste of time. If you need me I'll be in the library."

With that Blake left the dorm room as the three sighed in defeat. "She can't keep going on like this." Weiss shook her head in disappointment.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha clashed swords with Jaune managing to keep up pace as Pyrrha kept up her series of slashes with him before with a sly smirk she made a move to trip him. Jaune however saw this coming and stepped backwards to avoid it, only to get bashed by Pyrrha's shield.

"Excellent work Jaune!" Pyrrha smiled as she then offered him a hand that he took. "You've made splendid progress."

"Well it's all thanks to my great teacher." Jaune chuckled a little bashfully.

"Anyways, I think we should move on to aura now." Pyrrha insisted, putting her weapon's away.

"Can we... Skip that?" he asked.

Pyrrha let out a sigh. "Now, Jaune... I know it's frustrating but I'm sure you'll unlock your semblance if we keep trying at it enough."

"It's not that." Jaune shook his head. "It's... It's something dumb."

"Oh?" Pyrrha tilted her head in curiosity at what was bothering her team leader.

He took a deep breath. "It's the dance." he admitted.

"Oh..." Pyrrha looked down.

"I just... There's someone I want to go with, but I'm pretty certain she's expressed it that she's not interested in me. I just I wish there was something I could do or say to convince her to just give me a chance. But as if anyone would wanna go to the dance with a loser like me." Jaune sat down on the corner of the roof.

"You're... Not a loser Jaune." Pyrrha frowned as she started to walk over, wondering if Cardin's words cut that deep, wondering if maybe she could have acted sooner.

"Oh please, I'm only as good as I am now because of your help and even then being a better fighter isn't exactly going to make me better at talking to people, let alone girls." Jaune scoffed.

"I believe the saying goes..." Pyrrha sat down next to him. "There are plenty of fish in the sea?"

"That's easy for you to say, you've got guys clamoring to go with you every minute probably." Jaune shrugged in disbelief.

"You'd... Be surprised." Pyrrha looked forward at the shattered moon in the sky.

"Oh please, if you don't get a date to the dance. I'll wear a dress." he scoffed.

Pyrrha's smile quickly turned to a frown as Jaune got up and left her on the roof alone.

_What do I have to do to make you notice _

_Me? _

_Notice me... _

_Notice... Me..._

* * *

**Commentary**: Thus we begin the second arc of Volume 2. Not much commentary for this chapter. Had Cinder act a little sassier here towards Mercury, included "Dream Come True" here, and Pyrrha's sparring match with CRDL did get a little more context. CRDL won't be bothering Jaune anymore... Apart from that, not really much else to address here.


	6. Chapter 6: Burning the Candle

"Whew..." Yang brushed her hands off after putting down the last heavy speaker for the DJ that would be playing at the dance. "And you said this was gonna take a while." she joked at Weiss who seemed preoccupied.

"Pick a Doily, Ruby." Weiss held up two very similar looking White Doilies in front of the red huntress in training.

"Um... Aren't they the same?" Ruby asked, rather confused.

"Ugh, you're no help!" Weiss stomped in annoyance.

"Weiss, what did I say! No Doilies! We're not Grandmas, we're huntresses!" Yang crossed her arms.

"Oh? And what of that? I figured I'd accommodate the Atlesian students since they have a level of class about them." Weiss proclaimed.

"Yeah, but not everyone coming to the dance is from Atlas." Ruby remarked as a few students entered the ballroom, among them were Cinder, Sun, Neptune, and a couple of unfamiliar faces.

"What can we do for ya guys?" Yang asked.

"Oh, we just wanted to check out the venue." Cinder explained.

"Wanting to make sure it's cool enough for your liking?" Yang joked.

"Well, I mean I do make it a point to only go to the events that all the popular people go to." Cinder joked back.

"Well just about everyone's gonna be coming here tomorrow night." Yang folded her hands behind her head.

"I see..." Cinder was glancing around the ballroom, though her eyes seemed to lock onto any potential entrance and exit, windows included.

"So you guys got a cool setup going for ya." Neptune complimented as Weiss's eyes lit up a bit.

"W-Well yeah! We want this dance to be one we'll all remember!"

"Weiss managed to get one of the best DJ-ing teams this side of Remnant!" Ruby beamed eagerly. "I listen to their music on the regular!"

"Oh? Who might that be?" Sun asked curiously.

"the DJ team known as S1lly D3l1nqu3nt!" Ruby proclaimed.

"She wouldn't shut up about me getting them." Weiss furrowed her eyebrows.

"Well I'm definitely interested in seeing them live! I'm like a super fan of them!" Neptune proclaimed and started talking with Ruby.

"So... Any word on Blake?" Sun asked. "She seemed rather worked up."

"I... I don't know if she'll be able to go or not." Weiss shook her head. "She's been stressing herself out lately and her obsession with what happened last week has taken it's toll on her."

"Yeah..." Ruby's demeanor dropped when the topic of Blake was brought up. "I mean all we've got planned is nice and all. But I mean, if we don't get Blake to come here, what's the point?" she asked.

"Guys." Yang stepped forward. "Blake WILL come."

"How can you be so certain?" Cinder interjected.

"We're partners. Just trust me on this." Yang assured before she then started towards the library.

"So anyways, back on topic..." Weiss cleared her throat. "Which of these doilies do you guys think we should go with?"

* * *

Blake was scanning through Weiss's company files to find anything else that might be of use, she was barely halfway through all the incident reports of stolen dust when a bright red dot appeared in the middle of her screen. "..."

It vanished and she went back to reading before it appeared where she was about to read next. Gritting her teeth, Blake took her scroll out of the console and looked around, there the dot was on a bookshelf before it vanished and appeared in front of her. "Grrr..." she stomped on it before it vanished and appeared in front of her again.

She stomped forward following the dot till it lead her right into Yang who was holding a laser pointer in her hand. "We need to talk." Yang grabbed her arm and dragged her off before she could even protest.

The two sat on the table in an empty lecture hall right in front of the blackboard.

"Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop then don't waste your energy." Blake shook her head before she started to get up.

"Blake, just hear me out." Yang insisted with Blake sighing in annoyance, realizing that Yang wouldn't let her go otherwise.

"So you know Ruby and I are sisters, right?" Yang began.

"Yeah. I mean it's one of the first things I learned about you two."

"Well, we're half sisters."

"Half sisters?" Blake tilted her head.

"Yes, we both share one common parent, but our other parents are different. Our father, Taiyang Xiao Long is the link between us. We had different mothers. For Ruby there was her mother, Summer Rose." Yang took a deep breath. "Summer was... The best Mom we could have asked for. She would be out slaying monsters by day as a huntress and by night she'd be baking us two dozen cookies as our mother."

Yang sighed a little fondly at the memory. "She was like Super-Mom. That was till one day, she never came back." she looked down.

"Ruby was too young to comprehend what had happened... But our Dad... He shut down and I ended up having to look after Ruby more during that time. You see, Summer wasn't the first love our father had lost... The first one, was my mother..."

"Your mother?" Blake asked. "What happened? Why did she leave you?"

Yang clenched her fist as she was now leaning on the blackboard when Blake had asked that question. "That question. It's that question that's kept me up at night many times."

"My father always skirted around the answer. I did however find out a little more about her from my Uncle... My father and Uncle had been on the same team as her and Summer. My Uncle wouldn't tell me more than her name... But even then, that didn't stop me from wanting to find answers. So one day I found a potential lead and with Ruby in a wagon I walked off to an old address in the middle of the woods on Patch..."

"It must have taken us hours because I could hardly stand by the time we got there. But I had done it, I made it to where I might find my mother. However, when I opened the door I saw them... Red eyes staring right into my soul... There we were, a toddler asleep in a wagon and a girl too tired to even stand. We were practically served up on a silver platter for them. However, as luck would have it... At that moment Uncle Qrow showed up and saved us both."

Yang finished drawing a symbol that appeared an eye but with a gear in the center of it along with a feather. "I should have gotten us killed that day."

Blake grimaced at the story, but then focusing back on topic stood up again. "Yang, I'm sorry that happened to you, but with all due respect I'm not just a girl looking for answers! There's more lives than my own at stake here!"

"I'm not telling you to stop." Yang insisted. "I haven't, to this day I'm still looking for my mother and I won't stop till I find her and get some answers as to why she left me."

"Then just let me-" Blake was cut off.

"No! Just... Let me finish talking! Look, Blake. I never gave up my search. But you know what the difference is here? I don't let that search control me. I don't let my own obsession with finding the truth stop me from being a functioning person." Yang crossed her arms.

"You don't understand Yang, I'm the only person that can do this!" Blake argued.

"**NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND**!" Yang's eyes flared up into red along with her hair now. "If Roman Torchwick walked through that door right now what would you do?!"

"I'd fight him!" Blake punched Yang in the face, but she didn't even flinch, with Blake's fist still resting against her cheek.

"You'd lose!" Yang shoved her back.

"I CAN BEAT HIM!" Blake punched harder at Yang this time, Yang still didn't budge with that punch, even as it connected with her face.

"You can't even beat me!" Yang shoved Blake again, this time with Blake falling back onto the desk.

"I can do this!" Blake insisted, ready to get up fore more when suddenly Yang pulled her into a hug, trapping her arms and resting her head on Blake's shoulder.

"Please, Blake." Yang insisted. "We all want the same thing. But, if you destroy yourself in the process then we won't be able to do this. We need to function as a team, as **partners**."

Blake sniffled slightly now as she rested her head on Yang's shoulder. "I just... I don't want to lose anyone. N-Not again."

"You won't." Yang assured. "I'm not going anywhere. Just... Please get some rest. If not for yourself. Then do it for the people you care about." Yang released Blake from the hug as Blake wiped a tear from her cheek.

"And hey." Yang started towards the exit to the room. "If you come to the dance tomorrow... I'll save you a dance." she winked before leaving the room.

* * *

Ren, having just exited the shower wrapped his towel around his body and started towards his stuff when Jaune suddenly took hold of his arm. "We need to talk." he pulled him aside and the two were now sitting right on their beds.

"Ren, I know we haven't talked much, but I've always seen you like that brother I've never had." Jaune began.

"And I, you." Ren nodded before slowly starting to reach over towards his clothes that were neatly laid out on his bed.

"I just um... Girls... I uh..." Jaune was trying to find a way to phrase this. "I need help with talking to a girl." he confessed.

"Oh? Girls? I'm not sure I'd be of much help in that topic." Ren shook his head.

"But aren't you and Nora a thing?" he asked.

"Um..." Nora interjected, taking her headphones off her head. "We're not... 'Together, together.'" she corrected.

"Nora, what did I say? Headphones on!" Jaune yelled as Nora let out a panicked yelp before putting them back on and writing in her notebook. Though upon closer inspection one would see Nora was clearly drawing stick figures in it.

"I just... I want to talk to someone who's already told me they're not interested in me. I wish I could find a way to just, convince them to give me a chance without coming off like a creep." he admitted.

"Which girl is this?" Ren asked.

"Weiss." Jaune stated.

"I see..." Ren crossed his arms. "Well from what I understand Weiss has had to deal with many suitors that just want to get with her for her name."

"I, don't want that." Jaune shook his head. "If her name wasn't Schnee I'd still want to hang out with her. I just... Weiss is a great person, she's smart, she's good looking, her singing voice is amazing... I mean sure she's a bit bossy at times to her teammates, but when she's talking with all of us as a friend she's nice and thoughtful... At least till I say something. I'm just... I'm tired of being looked at like by her like I'm the dead weight of this team. Like I'm less than you guys."

"So this isn't about romantic feelings?" Ren was confused.

"W-What?!" Jaune's face flushed red for a moment. "N-No! I just want her to treat me with respect and like one of you guys!" he stated. "I'm just tired of being looked down on. By her and by Cardin... Cardin finally backed off from me today, which is a bit odd. He just dropped the topic of me doing his classwork today entirely and now he won't talk to me. Which I mean, I'm glad I don't have to do stuff for him anymore, but I get the feeling he still doesn't respect me."

"Weiss on the other hand. She's always thrown general disdain in my direction and I see she can be a great person to the people she sees as her friends... I just... Our teams hang out a lot together, I just want us to be friends." Jaune confessed. "I want bygones to be bygones. I want a good start with her as a friend rather than her just forever putting me in this zone of people that only care about her name. That's why I want to ask her to the dance. I want her to see that I'm not the way she perceives me."

"Then, why don't you just talk to her like a normal person then?" Pyrrha interjected, entering the room. "No hair brained schemes, no nicknames for her, no snide remarks. Just talk to her like you would with me."

"I... I don't know."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Jaune, if you're being honest with yourself she'll know. You can't be wrong then."

Taking a deep breath, Jaune nodded, standing up and pulling Pyrrha into a sudden hug. "Thank you."

She gasped a bit in surprise before the hug quickly ended and Jaune left the room.

"Practice what you preach Pyrrha." Nora commented as Pyrrha looked down.

* * *

It was the night of the dance and everyone was starting to congregate in the Ballroom and many students still flocking towards the ballroom.

Ruby grumbled as she entered the ballroom with Yang gasping in surprise at her sister's look. "You look beautiful!" Yang proudly proclaimed.

"Y-Yeah..." Ruby scratched the back of her head. "We really need to talk about how Weiss can fight in these!"

Ruby was now stumbling about in her heels as Yang laughed before Ruby slipped and she had to catch her.

"Careful sis!"

Sun Wukong who was still struggling to adjust the tie Neptune had given him, approached the Ballroom. "Stupid neck trap!" he complained, he wore a black shirt that he actually buttoned down.

"I knew you'd look better with a tie." Blake commented as she approached, wearing a nice formal dress.

"Y-You're going?!" he was surprised now.

"Of course. I'm sorry about before." she apologized. "However... My first dance has already been spoken for." she smirked.

Upon arrival at the ballroom Blake and Yang shared a dance with each other, smiling and laughing together while Sun watched just as the two finished and Blake then linked hands with him for a dance.

Jaune cleared his throat as he readied his approach on Weiss in the ballroom, he wore a suit with a black bowtie. However, it was when he was about to approach her that he saw the forlorn expression she had. He stopped himself before looking around the ballroom. He knew for a fact that there was only one person Weiss would have asked to the dance especially given the prior interactions between them he saw. Right by the punch bar, Neptune was laughing and having a great time with some other students and also his teammates.

Jaune glared daggers in Neptune's direction as he saw Jaune approaching him, starting to back away as well. However just before any confrontation could happen, Pyrrha walked by Jaune, by herself wearing a long red dress. However she seemed forlorn and Jaune, putting his teammates first, decided to follow her to see what was wrong.

The three other members of Team RWBY were watching Blake as she danced around the ballroom, now dancing with Alix and then switching to Nora as her partner.

"Well I'd say mission accomplished." Weiss nodded.

"I told you guys I'd make sure she'd come." Yang rested a hand on her hip.

"So... What now?" Ruby asked curiously.

"We enjoy the night." Yang smiled. "Have fun!"

Both her and Weiss walked off, leaving Ruby on her own. "Can I put my hood back on and take these stupid lady stilts off now?!" Ruby lamented.

"Not enjoying yourself, Miss Rose?" Professor Ozpin asked as he approached her.

"Oh no! I'm doing fine. I'm just not a... Fancy pantsy... Dancy girl." Ruby pouted, looking down.

"Well you can't spend your entire life on a battlefield, even if you wanted to." Ozpin chuckled a little as he looked out to all the students who were dancing.

"Yeah, that's been a lesson floating around a lot lately." Ruby crossed her arms.

"When you think about it, fighting and dancing are quite similar... Two partners, interlocked... Although one wrong move in the Ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot." he chuckled.

"Or a twisted ankle." Ruby grumbled, lifting her leg up slightly.

"It isn't every day friends are able to come together like this. Time does have it's ways of testing our bonds and their strength. Nights like these are what help them strengthen, nights like these are ones we'll never forget." Ozpin smiled.

"S-Say... Professor... Maybe we could dance?" Ruby asked with a chuckle.

"Oh no, I'm far too old for that." Ozpin laughed. "Besides I do see a student over there that could use a partner." Ozpin smiled, clearly gesturing over to Penny who was dancing right between two Atlesian soldiers awkwardly on her own.

Ruby started to make an approach, hoping that the guards would let them share a dance.

Yang was still by the front of the Ballroom to welcome in any students that were a little later a late pair entered.

"You guys are just on time!" she smiled to Emerald and Mercury as they both entered.

"We wouldn't miss this for the world." Mercury assured.

* * *

**Commentary**: Time for the dance! Honestly the biggest chance I have here is Ruby approaching Penny for a dance/talk with her since she seems as awkwardly out of place as her. Also the dance stuff with Jaune wanting to go with Weiss, and the stuff with Neptune and Weiss is different. Jaune just wants respect, he wants to be treated like the others in her eyes not be forever stuck with the same first impression.


	7. Chapter 7: Dance Dance Infiltration

Pyrrha leaned over by the balcony, looking down at the Beacon Courtyard. "Maybe I should have said something..."

"Should have said what?" the voice of Jaune asked as she jumped back a bit before turning to face him.

"Oh, Jaune you scared me!" Pyrrha calmed herself down.

"Heh... Sorry I didn't mean to startle you." he scratched the back of his head. "Why aren't you downstairs? Everyone's having such a good time and isn't your date downstairs?"

"Jaune... I..." Pyrrha looked away from him.

"Don't tell me... Your date stood you up?! Tell me where he is so I could give him a peace of my mind!" he seemed angry now but Pyrrha quickly went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, Jaune! It's not that!" she assured.

"What is it then?" he asked.

"I don't have a date." Pyrrha frowned.

"W-What?! Are you serious? But you're supposed to be a world class athlete, you're famous aren't you?"

"I am... But, there in lies the problem." she sat on the balcony. "I'm famous, yes. But I'm so famous that people are often too intimidated to approach me in any meaningful way. Even my family has put me on this pedestal to be this sort of unobtainable and unreachable paragon of virtue. It's gotten to the point where eve my family is too nervous to keep close contact with me..."

"That's ridiculous." Jaune sat next to her. "You're a person like me, if people knew you the way I did then they'd definitely wanna go to the dance with you!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but smile when Jaune said this. "That's what I like about you Jaune. You're always quick to see a person for who they are rather than what they are. Truth be told Jaune... You're the type of guy I'd wanna go to the dance with."

"M-Me?!" he was surprised by this as she stood herself up.

"Yes, you're a great person Jaune and I'm happy I can call you my teammate, let alone my team leader. It's thanks to you that I've been able to make as many friends as I have."

"Pyrrha, I..." Jaune looked away from her now, he wasn't sure how to approach this conversation further and Pyrrha could see it in his eyes. "Thank you." he stated.

"I'll be downstairs if you'd like a dance." Pyrrha stated before walking off.

Jaune smiled a little at the fact that he had at least brought Pyrrha's spirits up.

He was fine till Neptune approached him. "Hey man, what's the deal? Why were you shooting me that glare?!" Neptune asked.

Jaune let out a sigh. "Look I just need to know... Are you why Weiss is by herself?"

"Hey man, that's really none of your business..." Neptune crossed his arms.

"Alright, just drop it." Jaune furrowed his eyebrows.

"Drop what?"

"The whole 'tough and cool guy' act." he crossed his arms.

"Why do I have to drop that? It's just how I am." Neptune feigned.

"You're not fooling anyone, especially not if I can see through your schtick." Jaune deadpanned.

"Alright, I just... I wanna be cool in front of everyone. I have my team's reputation to think about!" Neptune argued.

"Honestly, you try a little too hard to be cool." Jaune shook his head.

"So what should I do then?" Neptune asked.

"Just be yourself. There's nothing wrong with being honest about yourself and who you are."

Neptune walked over to the balcony and looked out to the courtyard now as well. "You really think so?"

"Yeah." Jaune nodded. "Why did you turn Weiss's invitation down anyways?"

"I..." Neptune gulped a bit. "I can't dance!" he confessed.

"What... Really? You mean to tell me that because you can't rhythmically move your body to some music that you turned Weiss Schnee of all people, down?" Jaune facepalmed now, why did he have to suddenly become the 'Mom-friend'?

"I also didn't think she took me that seriously." Neptune added. "I don't know if I'm ready to commit to any kind of relationship like that!"

"Then tell her that. Be honest with yourself. Come clean. Trust me, you'll be a better person for it, and I'm certain Weiss would understand."

"You're... Pretty cool, Jaune." Neptune complimented.

"Hey, you're the cooler one than I am." Jaune laughed.

"Thanks for the advice."

"Anytime." Jaune smiled before starting towards the stairs from the Balcony.

"Where are you going?" Neptune asked.

"Well I have a promise to keep."

* * *

Ruby, with a cup of punch in her hand slowly danced her way over to Penny on the dance floor before coming right into contact with one of her two guards. "Halt." he stated.

"H-Hello!" Ruby waved. "I just wanna talk to Penny."

"Sorry, but we were given strict orders to not permit anyone, especially someone fitting your description near Miss Polendina." the guard explained as Ruby frowned.

"But Ruby is my friend." Penny argued, sticking up for herself.

"Penny, we understand but we were given strict orders by your father and General Ironwood to-"

"I wanna hang out with my friend!" Penny insisted, now walking forward and taking Ruby by the arm and dragging her along to another area of the dance floor.

"I'm terribly sorry for that." Penny apologized as her and Ruby found a nice corner to sit at.

"So um... Penny..." Ruby scratched the back of her head.

"How are you doing this fine night, Ruby my friend?!" she smiled.

"Oh i'm doing fine." Ruby assured. "I'm not a very good dancer so I've mostly been sitting around or drinking punch."

"Oh dear, that simply won't do!" Penny stood up. "We will begin dancing at once! I'm not a good dancer too! We could be not good dancers together!" she insisted, pulling Ruby along with her yet again with the other girl protesting as the two started to dance to the music.

Yang was sharing a dance with Alix now when she spotted this and couldn't help but stifle a slight giggle at the two girls trying to dance but looking more awkward as they did so.

However their laughs and awkward dancing was cut short when General Ironwood approached the two. "Miss Rose, I understand you've made acquaintances with Miss Polendina."

Penny frowned and looked away, expecting the worst.

"I admit, our handling of her is quite... Strict." Ironwood's serious expression softened slightly. "I suppose as a show of good will. I'll let you two continue dancing for the night."

"Thank you sir!" Penny smiled.

"Uh um... T-Thank you G-General Ironwood!" Ruby bowed a bit, trying a curtsy but fumbling a bit in her heels with Penny catching her before she fell.

General Ironwood then turned his attention over to Professor Goodwitch who was looking at her watch before offering his hand for a dance with her.

"Tonight's been fun, but afterwards it's straight into the grind of work tomorrow." Alix crossed his arms, sighing at the thought. "I feel anxious just thinking of going on my first shadowing mission with my team..."

"Yeah..." Yang nodded. "But i'm sure we'll be ready for anything thrown our way."

She smiled when she saw Neptune and Weiss talking again and was taken aback when Blake approached her just as several other students started laughing.

"I don't think we're ready for that." Blake pointed towards what all the students downstairs were laughing at. Jaune had entered the ballroom wearing a dress, admittedly she was trying to hold back a slight chuckle while Alix took out his scroll to record.

Jaune immediately walked over to Pyrrha who was laughing a bit louder than the crowd around him. "J-Jaune! Y-You didn't have to!"

"Hey, an Arc keeps their promises." Jaune stated with a hand confidently on his hip. "Now then are we going to dance or what?" he held a hand out.

"I would absolutely love to!" she took his hand and he lead her out into the center of the dance floor as the next song was starting up.

Nora grinned eagerly as she watched. "This. Is. HAPPENING!" she proclaimed.

"What's happening?" Ren was confused before Nora dragged him out towards the dance floor.

_Baby it's time to make up your mind_

The entirety of Team JNPR started dancing in sync with one another starting with a couple of kick steps.

_I think that tonight is when the stars align_

The crowd cheered as Team JNPR kept their synchronization up with a body roll now.

_Honey, right now we leave the doubt behind_

Jaune took Pyrrha in for a more intimate dance while Ren did the same with Nora.

_Take my hand cause you and I are gonna shine!_

"I had no idea you were a dancer Jaune!" Pyrrha laughed as Jaune spun her around.

"Well these kinds of things happen when you grow up with seven sisters." he chuckled as Pyrrha put a hand over her mouth in surprise.

"I have GOT to meet them one day!" Pyrrha proclaimed as Jaune internally thought about the implications of seeing his sisters.

"M-Maybe in the far **FAR** future!" he laughed as they continued dancing.

"So Neptune... What made you wanna come back and be honest with me?" Weiss asked, still glancing over at Jaune and Pyrrha on the dance floor.

Neptune chuckled a little. "You're lookin' at him. You've got some good friends looking out for you, Weiss."

Weiss looked over to Jaune but shot a brief smile in his direction. "I guess I do."

Everyone at the dance was having a grand time with Blake and Sun doing the mix up, Nora and Ren trying to do a Disco dance, Pyrrha and Jaune were still dancing closely as well.

Ruby and Penny both laughed while doing the robot dance together before Penny suddenly grasped the side of her head. "That's weird."

"What's weird Penny?" Ruby asked with concern in her tone.

"I picked up some radio chatter."

"Radio chatter? what's up?" Ruby glanced from side to side.

"I'm sorry, I should go talk to Mr. Ironwood. This isn't the first time something like this has happened." Penny stated. "Oh but please keep having fun tonight, Ruby my friend!" Penny smiled as Ruby gave her a quick hug before seeing her off as she made her way back to Ironwood.

* * *

"Is my path clear?" the voice of Cinder asked over her scroll as Mercury with a small earpiece spoke back.

"Yes." he assured, while looking down from the second floor balcony with Emerald at his side. "All the dancers have partners."

"When should I get back by?" Cinder asked.

"I'd say if you're here by the stroke of Midnight you should be safe." Mercury assured.

"And there's no one that can spot you from where you're going in." Emerald added.

"Excellent." Cinder smirked, pulling a hood over her head before leaping down from the roof top she was sitting upon and sneaking through the bushes in the courtyard, starting towards the CCT.

Two guards standing in front of the CCT were glancing over at the ballroom where all the students were partying and having a good time.

"You ever wonder why we're here?" he asked.

"We're guarding the CCT tower while General Ironwood is having it updated with stronger security systems to prevent any security compromises before the tournament." the other guard answered.

"No I mean like... Why we're here... At this school during the dance of all times. Remember when we had a dance dude?"

"Look, I just want to focus on my job here and this conversation is too distracting-" before he could say another word he was knocked out and dragged into the bushes by a hooded figure.

"Huh?!" the other guard slowly approached the bushes with his gun down and reached for his scroll, ready to dial for backup when before he had time to react the hooded figure leaped at him and tackled him to the ground, soon dragging him into the bushes as well.

Back by the exit to the Ballroom Ruby let out a tired sigh, wishing that she could have kept dancing with Penny. But she had had enough dancing for one night and was ready to get some rest. As she started back towards the dorm building she noticed something in one of the bushes by the CCT, it caught her attention because the glare this object had reflected the moon's light right back into her eyes.

She slowly approached the CCT.

Back in the tower Cinder smirked under her mask and hood as several guards spotted her. "Hey, you can't be in here right now!" one of the guards threatened, pointing a gun at her.

She seemed unimpressed with a tilt of her head as she then grabbed the Guard by the arm and he fired a shot off, only for her to have directed his gun holding arm back to another guard, making him shoot his own comrade before she then threw him over her shoulder, into a handrail and spun around, two swords made of glass appearing in her hands as guards with Batons attempted to attack her, she easily deflected the first swipe of a baton and countered with an upwards slash from one of her swords and followed up with a second slash, this time using both of her swords at the other guard as he missed his attack on her, her slash shattering the guard's shoulder armor as he fell to the ground.

More guards attempted to attack her, firing on her and attempting to electrocute her with their batons, but found themselves outclassed by Cinder as she spun around with a drop kick slashed another soldier across the chest with her glass sword and slammed the blunt end of her sword's hilt into the face of another soldier before finally slamming both swords into the chest of another soldier, shattering his chest plate along with her swords before continuing along her way to the elevator.

Inside the elevator two Atlesian soldiers were fiddling on their scrolls. "Say, do you know the wifi password?"

"Oh yeah, it's B3acon#. Like replace the E with a 3 and put a # symbol at the end." the soldier explained to his companion before the door opened revealing Cinder standing over the bodies of several downed soldiers.

The two in the elevator were shaking as Cinder entered and turned around, pressing the button for a floor and then the door with the elevator closing and the sounds of struggling behind heard inside.

Ruby finally reached the tower when she realized what that glare was, it was the helmet of an Atlesian soldier, he was laying there in the bushes unconscious. She fumbled on her heels slightly, wondering about turning around to go back to the Ballroom. "No... The enemy might get away in that time." she muttered under her breath before she then took her scroll out and called for her locker to show up while also sending a quick message to her teammates about something off going on at the CCT and to get help.

Her locker arrived with her weapon that she quickly grabbed, along with her combat boots that she traded her heels for. "Finally free of those lady stilts..." she muttered under her breath as she ran inside.

Cinder, finally reaching the central control panel of the CCT adjusted her gloves slightly before taking her scroll out of her pocket and plugging her's in right next to the scroll that was installing the security update to the school's systems. All other monitors in the room lit up with a black queen chess piece.

"Someone's leaving the ballroom." Mercury's voice alerted.

"Who?" Cinder asked.

Emerald and Mercury were dancing now as they watched Yang talking to General Ironwood leading to him starting out the door immediately.

"General Ironwood." Emerald stated.

"I guess the General's had enough dancing for one night." Mercury spun Emerald around while watching him leave. "Should we intervene?"

Cinder paused for a brief moment. "No." she stated as she took her scroll out of the terminal. "We're finished here."

The elevator door suddenly opened with Ruby Rose walking in, holding her weapon transformed into it's scythe form. The loudness of the elevator had given away any hint of surprise she might have had so she just cleared her throat and yelled out. "Hello?!"

Cinder stood up, her eyes narrowing, before a smirk formed on her face as she turned to face Ruby her hood and her mask obscuring her face from the young huntress's view.

"This isn't a masquerade party, so why don't you just-" before Ruby could finish her quip Cinder took out a canister of dust and dispelled it, transforming it into shards of glass that she launched at Ruby.

Ruby spun her scythe around to deflect the glass as she then fired off several rounds at Cinder, who blocked each of them with her hands.

Her outfit now glowing a bright orange color as Ruby launched herself at Cinder, slashing downwards at her, while Cinder backflipped and a single glass sword formed in her hand.

She thrust her blade forward at Ruby, sending her flying backwards before her outfit started glowing again as Ruby got herself up.

Cinder immediately threw her now glowing orange glass sword at Ruby, who barely had any time to raise her scythe in front of her to block it, the sword exploding on impact, sending Ruby flying right in front of the elevator as the door opened and General Ironwood arrived on the scene with his pistol drawn, only to see no one there except the slightly wounded Ruby.

* * *

Cinder, opened a back door to the ballroom now, focusing and raising her arms as her outfit shifted into a formal gown before she entered the ballroom, quickly blending in with the crowd as several Atlesian soldiers had managed to pursue her, only to lose her into the crowd. The mask she had worn crumbled into dust as the soldiers stepped onto it, leaving no trace.

Mercury and Emerald were dancing together when Cinder tapped Mercury's shoulder. "I hope you don't mind if I cut in." she insisted as Mercury took her hand for a dance with Emerald nodding.

"So, how'd it go?" Mercury asked.

"It went great. Though there was a little more excitement than expected." Cinder explained as she smiled to Mercury.

"Should we be worried?"

"Oh hardly, they'll be scratching their heads long after what we've gotten what we've come here for." she assured with a devious smirk before she then traded partners, now dancing with Emerald.

"What do we do now?" Emerald asked.

"Enjoy the night. After all... It is a party..." she smiled, glancing over to the various students around the ballroom.

Penny was now sitting by herself between two soldiers, Yang was talking with Blake and Weiss, the two of them seemingly concerned as they looked to their scrolls, Pyrrha and Jaune were winded from all the dancing and were catching their breath with some drinks and Alix was being a general goofball while talking with Team SSSN with his teammate Erika accompanying him there as well.

The bell tolled, signaling that it was midnight all the while this was going on.

Ruby held her side, sitting in the CCT control room as Ironwood was dialing for someone on his scroll, looking forlorn at her current predicament.

* * *

**Commentary**: Shorter chapter, but to be fair I really wanted to get through the dance arc, gave Ruby and Penny some interaction and Ruby and Cinder's fight was a little longer and Cinder made sure to not fight in a way Ruby would have recognized. Edit: HOLY HELL, I WAS MISSING THE STARTING PORTION OF THIS CHAPTER. I apologize!


	8. Chapter 8: Field Day

"So tell me again your recounting of Events Miss Rose." Ironwood requested as he sat on Ozpin's desk

"W-Well I saw the knocked out guard and I messaged my teammates to get help. I also called my locker there so that I could go in. I figured, that whoever did this might get away so I went after them." Ruby explained.

"What you did was dangerous." Glynda stated with her arms crossed.

"What you did was brave and commendable." Ironwood put a hand on her shoulder. "It was because of you I was made aware of this situation."

"T-Thank you sir." Ruby nodded before thinking. "This person, their clothes were glowing as they fought me and they used glass."

"Sowing dust into clothing is an age old technique." Ozpin stated. "It's likely this person in the tower was specialized..." he glanced over to Ironwood and Glynda who were pondering who this mystery person could have been.

"Oh um... I also heard them say something about... The Southeastern quadrant of Vale!" Ruby added. "Y-Yeah! She mentioned some sort of plan for that area."

"I see, and you heard this before she started her attack on you?" Ironwood asked.

"Y-Yes!" Ruby nodded, knowing that it was a lie, but figured this would be enough to get someone to arrive on the scene and do something about this.

"Thank you for your help Miss Rose." Ozpin dismissed her. "Remember, this incident didn't happen." he insisted.

"R-Right." Ruby nodded as she was dismissed and left down the elevator.

"We should deploy my troops there immediately." General Ironwood insisted. "They'll dispatch the situation and our problems will be solved."

Ozpin then raised a hand up. "General Ironwood, I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with you. Situations like these need to be handled with delicately. Especially when you consider the nature of the area you're sending your men into."

General Ironwood crossed his arms. "But they were here, Ozpin! They were here!"

"They were, but losing our minds over it and acting brashly is exactly what our enemy wants from us." Ozpin took a sip from his mug.

"What do you propose we do then?" Ironwood looked out the window.

"We send in a smaller team... A smaller team to scout out the area for us. They report anything they find and then they return back here. Yes..." Ozpin smirked a bit. "I think I know just the person for this kind of job. After all, James. Don't you remember a basic lesson of war? You don't send in your flag bearer, openly declaring battle with enemy forces in unknown territory first... No, you send the scouts first to make sure you aren't walking into a trap."

* * *

Ruby let out a sigh, sitting on a char in the middle of the room, having explained the situation to her teammates.

"And this unknown intruder used weapons made of glass." Weiss crossed her arms.

"Yeah. I couldn't find any means of identifying them." Ruby shook her head. "Could they have been White Fang?" she glanced over to Blake.

"There is a chance. But I doubt the White Fang would be so bold as to send someone to try and compromise the CCT..." Blake jumped off her bed.

"Well you did what you could sis." Yang put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure if we had been closer we would have come for the assist and there's no way they would have gotten away." she confidently boasted. "On another note..." Yang held up a large mail tube.

"What's that?" Ruby tilted her head.

"It's a package, from home!"

"From Dad?!" Ruby seemed eager as Yang opened the tube up and shook the contents of it out.

Immediately from the tube unfolded a small black and white corgi dog that barked.

"ZWEI!" Ruby exclaimed as the dog leaped into her arms and started licking her face.

"Your Dad sent a dog?!" Blake's eye twitched.

"IN THE MAIL!?" Weiss's eye was twitching as well.

"Oh he does this all the time!" Yang chuckled as she pulled a letter out of the mail tube.

"Your Dad, or your dog?" Blake asked, now sitting back on her bed again as Zwei hopped out of Ruby's arms and approached Weiss.

"Let's see... 'I'm finally going on a mission again after so long, could you please watch after Zwei for me till I get back? Enclosed is all the food you'll need -Love Dad." Yang read aloud as Zwei looked up to Weiss panting.

"You're a mangy little..." Weiss scowled. "Adorable little BABY!" Weiss immediately started petting Zwei as he barked happily. "Yes, you are!" Weiss was playing with his ears now.

"Wow Weiss, I didn't know you were a dog person." Ruby chuckled.

"Of course I am! I love adorable things like this little cutie! You're gonna stay with us forever and ever, right?!"

"Please keep him away from my stuff." Blake stated as Weiss then looked towards Yang.

"What're we gonna do during the week? We're going to be gone while your Dog's here."

Yang shook the tube again and sure enough several cans of dog food poured out along with a can opener. "Well that answers that. C'mon girls, we gotta go to briefing in the Amphitheater. Zwei'll be here when we get back." Yang waved as Blake followed, quickly jumping across the room to avoid contact with Zwei while Weiss just pet him some more as she made her way out.

Ruby then glanced over at Zwei with a slight smile. "Hmm..."

* * *

Ruby entered the Amphitheater wearing a backpack now, the backpack notably moved a bit when she stopped as Professor Ozpin walked up onto the stage.

"Today we stand united... All of our kingdoms, Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas. The four primary kingdoms of Remnant. It is on this day 80 years ago that the greatest recorded war in the history of mankind came to an end."

Many of the students in the amphitheater looked down, knowing the implications that this war had. Jaune notably seemed to avert his eyes from the stage for a moment in thought about his grandfather's part in this war.

"This was a war of ignorance, greed and oppression. This war was fought for more than just trading and borders. This war was fought for the idea of individualism. It was fought for countless reasons, the destruction of art and all forms of self expression... As I'm sure you know, that's something many of us could not stand for..."

Erika notably winced at the mention of the destruction of art. "All that work... Just torn away." she muttered under her breath.

"Those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the key aspects of art. Color. It is a tradition we here on Remnant have kept to this day. We encourage expression, individualism and unity through our diversity. However, this bond we all share cannot exist without effort. Which is why on this day today, as the world celebrates peace, we do our duties as huntsmen and huntresses to maintain that peace. First year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional on a mission. Some of you may be outside of the Kingdom for several days, others might just work for the rest of the week. But no matter what path you choose, remember to be safe, keep your training in mind and try your very best."

With that Professor Ozpin dismissed the assembly as the mission boards appeared with the teams quickly rushing to claim the mission of their choice. Ruby, using her semblance sped over before a line could be formed and looked around. "C'mon there has to be something there..."

The rest of her teammates approached with Blake stopping it right before Ruby scrolled past it. "There!" she selected it. It was a mission under the category of 'Scouting and engagement.' However when Ruby entered her team's name for it, it denied her access. "Aww... Seriously?!" she tried again only to get the same message.

"Well how else can we get there?" Weiss crossed her arms in a huff when Ruby had an idea.

"We mail ourselves there!" she proclaimed.

"You could do that..." Ozpin approached with a chuckle. "However, we've determined the level of hostiles in the area is too intense for first year students. It does seem that particular region has been popular... I have this sneaking suspicion you four will find your way there regardless."

Weiss, Blake and Yang all give a glance to Ruby.

"W-What would make you say that?!" Ruby laughed nervously at this claim.

"I mean it is just very odd how you four found yourselves in the middle of the docks last semester... Not to mention it's a huge coincidence how you came upon the information about the Southeastern side of Vale being where the enemy might be going and I won't even begin to mention the Rumors I've heard of robots and rose petals on the highway last week."

Ruby was really hoping her teammates would back her up on this, but they were just as nervous as her at this point. "W-Well..."

"I doubt I'll get clear answers on this." Ozpin shook his head. "So instead of waiting for you four to break the rules... Why not just bend them a little?" with that he approved them for the mission.

"O-Oh! T-Thank you sir!" Ruby smiled before turning towards her teammates, Yang shrugged her shoulders, Blake and Weiss looked like they had many questions.

"Do not thank me for this. Your teamwork and persistence has carried you this far. But you must understand that what lies beyond the walls of this academy and Kingdom does not care. Stay close to your huntsman at all times and do exactly as he orders you. He can have you sent back to Beacon for an unsatisfactory performance. Good luck."

With that Professor Ozpin turned his attention over to the other teams.

As the other teams were selecting their missions with Jaune being as indecisive as ever, he decided to leave an important choice like this up to his teammates. "I'm not too sure about where we should go."

Ren then selected a mission. "I'd like to work guard duty on a local village that's been seeing more Grimm attacks as of late." he stated as he had chosen the mission.

"Sure. Sounds good enough." Jaune nodded.

Nora notably put a hand on Ren's shoulder as the team was then logged for the mission that wasn't starting till the next day.

Three of the four members of Team FCSA were standing around the selection screen when the woman, clad in a leather biker suit with bright orange hair chose the mission.

"Guard duty in town?" Alix asked.

"Well, with all the robberies that have been going on recently, I figure it'd be a good chance to bash some bad guy faces in!" the female proclaimed eagerly.

"You're always so eager to go violent, aren't you Ember?" Erika shook her head at her team leader's brashness.

"Well hey, I wanna help make a difference around here too, ya know. Not to mention with the tournament coming up VERY soon, I figure why not get some practice in like that?!"

"I don't think we're gonna find the same level of trouble Alix found last semester." Erika shook her head.

"I still think he should have called me for help." Ember pouted as she looked over to Alix.

"I just hope Cyrus is up to the job." Alix lamented as his team's mission was chosen now before looking out the door.

* * *

Team RWBY began to walk over towards the airship docks as their mission was leaving immediately.

"That wasn't exactly the most uplifting and motivational speech." Yang sighed.

"But it was the truth." Blake affirmed.

"It won't be easy but I know we'll make it through this just fine." Ruby assured her teammates.

"Whoa! Team CFVY's back from their mission finally!" one student called out as groups of students approached the landing airship with Team RWBY quickly making their way over to check to see how they were doing.

As Team CFVY stepped out of the airship, they notably looked worse for wear, Velvet was holding her side and Coco was not making any eye contact as she walked..

"Are you guys okay?" Blake asked with concern.

Velvet just offered the best smile she could give her. "We're fine. It's good that Yatsuhashi was around to look after me..." she commented, pointing to him as he gave a slight wave as Fox followed behind him.

"Your mission was supposed to end a week ago, what happened?" Weiss added.

"There were just... So... Many of them." Velvet looked down. "Oh but don't worry! You first years are just shadowing huntsmen, you'll be fine." she assured them with another smile. "I should get back to my team. Be safe out there!" she ran off to catch up with her teammates.

Back onto the topic at hand. Ruby smiled confidently to her teammates. "We've never been one to back down from a challenge right?"

"Right." Blake nodded.

"Besides, it won't just be us, but a genuine actual huntsman fighting alongside us!" Ruby grinned eagerly.

"YEAH!" Yang raised her fist up confidently.

All the girls were excited and ready to get going till they saw their huntsmen.

Their mouths hung open.

"Why, hello girls!" Professor Oobleck greeted wearing what one would assume is stereotypical safari gear. "Who's ready to fight for their lives?!"

* * *

**Commentary**: Not too much changed about this chapter though we did get some more character introductions for members of team FCSA(Well, we don't see Cyrus till next chapter). Cyrus is an Ex-White Fang member, and Ember is a biker delinquent who decided to make something with her life by going to an academy. She's the leader of team FCSA and she's actually a reference to Ghost Rider. You'll get that more later. At least with her fighting style anyways. We did also get to see the other teams picking their missions.


	9. Chapter 9: Scouting and Engagement

"Professor Oobleck?!" Weiss spoke up first.

"Yes, although i'm afraid your bags won't be necessary. Our mission is reconnaissance. We'll locate the enemy, call for backup and assist in the cleanup." he began, speaking too fast already. "We will not be establishing any sort of base of operations. Instead we will be traversing the wasteland that is the southeastern quadrant of Vale. We'll only be setting up camp in various easy to guard locations. I packed all essentials we'll need, plotted our travel course... And..." he paused now, glaring at Weiss.

"It's **Dr.** I did not get a PHD for no reason!" he spoke up as Weiss whimpered a little and hid behind Ruby now.

"Um..." Weiss didn't know what to say, exchanging worried glances with Blake and Yang who also were at a loss for words.

"Now then, we don't have time to dilly dally! We have to keep with our schedule! Which... According to said schedule We're already behind! Behind our schedule!" he disappeared in a blur that moved towards the docked airship that was waiting for them.

"W-Well okay! Looks like team RWBY is gonna save Vale with Dr. Oobleck, okay yeah that sounds bad when I say it out loud." Ruby groaned a bit.

"SAVE VALE?!" Nora yelled out from a distance as team JNPR approached. "You're going to save Vale without us?!" she pretended to sound hurt and offended. "I'm sad... Upset! Maybe a little hungry too..." her stomach grumbled now.

"That sounds like it's exciting." Jaune chuckled as he approached with his teammates. "Where are you guys going?"

"Oh just outside of the Kingdom to the Southeast."

"We're going out of Kingdom too!" Nora grinned.

"Oh really now?" Yang reflected Nora's grin back at her.

"Yeah, Ren and Nora were pretty eager to assist in defending a village, helping out the huntsman that keeps the place together." Pyrrha explained.

"We leave tomorrow." Ren affirmed.

"Then you guys can party with us!" Sun proclaimed as Teams SSSN and FCSA walked over.

"My team's shadowing a local law enforcement huntsman. We got these cool Junior Detective badges and everything!" Sun showed his badge as Jaune glanced down at it.

"I swear I've seen that before..." Jaune remarked.

"Aren't those the same badges the police gives to kids when they get the tour at the police department?" Ruby asked.

Neptune seemed a bit nervous and stood his ground. "N-No! These are our official badges!"

"RIIIIGHT..." Yang rolled her eyes as Sage just groaned a bit, facepalming at the stupidity of his teammates while Scarlet was notably wearing his badge proudly.

"We'd go to the city with you guys." Sun looked towards team RWBY. "Buuut stuff usually ends up blowing up in our faces or hitting us in our faces in some cases."

"Pft. Well my team's going to assist in a local huntsman who's guarding the docks to prevent more robberies." Ember explained with a grin. "They'll never see what hit them!"

"Right. Well our mission begins tomorrow." Alix interjected. "We'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"And we'll beat up the suspicious stuff." Ember grinned. "You guys just make it back okay. We still need you around to watch us win the tournament!"

Erika just muttered under her breath. "I hope nothing happens. I'd much rather enjoy being able to catch up on my sketching while also keeping track of my _quiet_ surroundings."

"They won't get past us." a fox faunus approached the group, he wore an orange short sleeved jacket with fur trimming around the collar with a mix of white on the front of the jacket. His pants were a basic black, his wrists were bandaged up and he wore combat boots. On the back of his jacket were the very faint remnants of a White Fang symbol and he notably had some light stubble on his face.

"Oh, Cyrus!" Alix walked over to him.

"Bout time you showed your as-" Ember was elbowed in the gut by Erika who just let out a sigh.

"Sorry, I had to handle some stuff." he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish chuckle, glancing up at Blake who looked away briefly. "But yeah, you don't gotta worry about Vale while you're gone. We'll be holding down the fort just fine."

"Well that's reassuring." Blake nodded.

"Yeah-" Ruby was cut short.

"4 Minutes ladies!" Dr. Oobleck called out from the ship.

"Um... Wish us luck guys!" Ruby waved off as everyone disbanded and her team entered the ship, starting to fly off.

* * *

Roman Torchwick glanced down as he held a set of cards in his hands. "Hmm..." he threw his cards onto a barrel that was being used as a makeshift table in what seemed to be a train car.

"Pair of aces." he smirked confidently to his opponent, Neo.

Neo simply blinked, her eyes changing from white and pink to brown and pink as she then threw down a royal flush.

"Got me again." Roman shook his head. "You've certainly learned from the best." he laughed before he received a call. "What now?"

Neo glanced up at him, a slight hint of concern on her face as Roman listened to what he was being told. "Uh huh... So we're just waiting for your cue then?"

Neo's eyes darted from side to side as she was clearly messing with the card deck now, shuffling it around and doing tricks with the cards.

"You want me to what?!" he kept listening in.

"Ohohoho..." the call ended and he looked to Neo. "Looks like our plan has certainly gotten more interesting, Neo."

He then drew out another card.

* * *

"I never fancied you much of a fighter Dr. Oobleck." Yang remarked.

"Oh I don't fancy myself a fighter. I'm more of an intellectual if I do say so myself. But I've had my fair share of tussles!" Dr. Oobleck explained.

Ruby was just confused while holding onto a handle inside the bullhead. "Like the mushroom?"

"Those are truffles." Blake interjected.

"Like the sprout?"

"Those are Brussels." Yang also interjected.

"Like the clam?" Ruby asked.

"Those are mussels, you dolt." Weiss deadpanned and it shut Ruby up as the ship finally reached it's destination.

"Back on topic... With my expertise in history, as well as archaeological surveys our dear headmaster saw it fit to assign me this... Assignment!" Dr. Oobleck explained.

"What does history have to do with what we're doing?" Weiss asked.

"What a preposterous question you silly girl! Why, history is the very backbone of our society! Probably our kidney too... And our backbones... If I were to make a wager."

"And that means?" Weiss was hoping for him just to get to the point.

"The Southeastern Quadrant of Vale is home to many deep caves and wild forests, but it is also home to one of our kingdom's greatest failures."

"Mountain Glenn." Ruby finished, looking down.

"That is correct Miss Rose!" Oobleck complimented her.

"It was supposed to be an expansion of Vale, but it was overrun by Grimm and had to be walled off from the rest of the Kingdom." Yang explained.

"Yes, it now stands abandoned as a dark reminder of what comes beyond the safety of our Kingdom's walls." Dr. Oobleck added.

"It would also be a great spot for our enemies to make a hideout." Blake commented.

"Precisely!" Oobleck adjusted his glasses as the bullhead landed finally. "Ladies! Today marks the beginning of your careers as huntresses! You may still be students, but by stepping off this airship you begin your work. From this point forward you must do exactly as I say, do you understand?"

The four girls nodded in agreement as they stepped out of the airship with Dr. Oobleck and the bullhead sped off. "Miss Rose, what did I tell you before? You needn't bring your bag with you!"

"W-Well I just thought Y-You can never be to sure!" Ruby defended herself. "Also you didn't tell us to follow your orders yet!" she added.

Weiss, Blake and Yang all facepalmed in unison.

"You're not wrong... Very well Ruby, you can leave your bag somewhere you can retrieve it later on our way back." Oobleck instructed.

"B-But well I uh..."

"Young lady, what could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important to bring with you on this mission?!" Oobleck glared at her now, but before he could press more the zipper on the top of the bag started to open and Zwei's head poked out of it and he barked.

Ruby's eyes went wide now as she glanced back over to her dog. "G-Get back in the bag." she muttered under her breath.

"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle, teeming with dangers, hostiles and death and you brought your dog?" Oobleck stared blankly forward at Zwei now.

"GENIUS!" Oobleck snatched Zwei out of Ruby's bag, making her spin around and fall over. "Canines are known for their heightened sense of smell and keen sense of hearing! They are excellent assistants for a hunt! He may possibly be able to assist us in tracking!" he declared, looking to Zwei as he barked happily.

"You've met Zwei before, haven't you Dr. Oobleck?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, of course I have! I've frequented your father's home plenty of times to exchange quite the stories!" he cleared his throat. "However, I am not here as your father's friend. I am here as a huntsman with a job." he dropped Zwei to the ground, with him harmlessly landing on his butt and panting, looking up at the five.

"I'm a genius!" Ruby grinned as Weiss and Yang just both shot glances at one another that expressed how done they were with their team leader's foolishness.

"So Doctor Oobleck what's our first order?" Blake asked.

"Ah, straight to the chase! I like that! Now then, as you're aware, we're here on the pretense that our enemies have been hiding in the area. There has been a surge of Grimm activity around this area, and therefore that will assist in us locating our enemies. We simply just need to trace their volume and find the pattern in their behavior and thus that will lead us to what we're looking for which is... Grimm." he stopped.

"What?" Ruby was confused.

"A creature of Grimm, approximately 100 yards away from us at this exact moment." Dr. Oobleck pointed out as the four readied their weapons now.

Dr. Oobleck raised a hand. "STOP!"

"Why?" Blake was confused now.

"There are a number of reasons why the Grimm would be congregating in this area. Likely one of which being the group with ill intent here that are harboring these negative emotions, such as sadness, anger, loneliness, envy."

"So what do we do?" Ruby asked.

"We wait and we track them." Dr. Oobleck stated. "We follow their trail and they'll likely lead us to what we're looking for..."

"How long do we wait?" Yang asked.

"Could be hours... Weeks... Months... Maybe years? Lone Beowolves can sometimes stray from their pack for an excessively long time... And there's the whole pack." Oobleck pointed out as the rest of the beowolves were there now.

"What?" Weiss asked in confusion.

"And now they've seen us." Oobleck stated, leaning closer to Weiss.

"WHAT?!" Weiss's eyes went wide.

"AND NOW THEY'VE SEEN US!" he yelled in Weiss's face as the beowolves started to run towards the team.

"So I guess that means following them is out of the question." Yang noted.

"That would be a correct assumption, yes." Oobleck nodded in agreement.

"What's the plan then?" Ruby asked, readying her weapon, the team looking to the huntsman expectantly, wondering if he would interject in this bout.

"Show me what you're capable of." he stated.

Ruby aimed Crescent Rose forward. "Cover your ears boy!" she told Zwei as he ducked his head down and looked up. Ruby fired the first shot that tore through a Beowolf's head, causing it to dissipate into nothing.

Yang, now charging forward fires a shot from her gauntlet's at a beowolf, causing it to stagger back before she then fires another shot into it's chest, causing it to dissipate before, uppercutting another one in the chin, knocking it into the air for Ruby to finish off with a shot from her rifle.

Blake stood still, glaring forward at the beowolves, her weapon sheathed on her back as one of them swiped at her, however she appeared above them now, the beowolves having hit one of her shadow clones before she then brings her weapon down through it's neck, slicing it's head off while another made a swipe at her, faking it out with another shadow clone Blake put her weapon's glock barrel to the side of it's head and fired a shot, causing it to explode out and kill it before she then bounded off another beowolf to get air and wrapped her weapon's ribbon around it's torso and threw it in Yang's direction as Yang then fired shots off from behind her with her gauntlets to propel herself into the air and punched the Beowolf square in the jaw, causing it to fall over in front of Ruby who then finished it with a shot from Crescent Rose.

Weiss was, keeping herself above the beowolves while firing icicles out of her glyphs before she finally came down, stabbing a Beowolf in the mouth and then creating a glyph that blocked the attack from the next one, giving her an opening to stab this one in the chest before she then launched herself forward and stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, creating a wave of icicles that sent the last beowolf flying into the air. Blake then wrapped her ribbon around this one and slammed it into the ground for Yang to then pick up by the leg and toss in Ruby's direction.

"Head's up sis!" she called out as Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into it's scythe form as the Beowolf was starting to gain control of itself in midair. Ruby then sped forward with her semblance and cut it in half before turning to Dr. Oobleck.

"Heh, that wasn't too bad." Ruby caught her breath as the rest of her team nodded in approval.

"Do not rest easy yet, I'm sure this is the first bout of many." Dr. Oobleck stated as the team would continue into the ruins.

Ruby and Blake both put their weapons away in exhaustion as they stood over more beowolf corpses that soon faded away.

"Excellent work! However there doesn't appear to be any signs of criminal activity in this sector." Dr. Oobleck then lead the team forward again.

"You know, Doctor Oobleck, I was really expecting to see a real huntsman in action." Yang lamented to him as she followed his lead. "Like fighting, or maybe helping us fight?"

"Ah but you are! Scouring these ruins of this once great city for any signs of irregularity and recent activity!" Dr. Oobleck adjusted his glasses. "Remember, not every mission is filled with daring and heroism girls. Sometimes it can be more or less just an extermination job. This is a job, and you all signed up for this. I do hope you understand."

"W-Well of course I understand! Definitely!" Yang feigned as she continued onward.

Dr. Oobleck crossed his arms, seemingly in disbelief of Yang's answer.

More shots would be fired out as the team again stood over dissipating Grimm bodies with nothing really happening here.

Yang fired off a shot into a building at a beowolf that killed it as Oobleck lurked close by her.

"Tell me Miss Xiao Long. Why did you choose this line of work?" he asked her.

"Well... I mean..." Yang stopped to think for a moment. "To fight monsters and protect-"

"No, that is what you do. I want to know why you do it. What's your reasoning for choosing to become a huntress." he cut her off.

"The reason?" Yang paused to think this through more. "I'm... Well I'm a thrill-seeker. I wanna get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can and if I help people along the way, it's a win-win situation, right?"

"I see..." Dr. Oobleck nodded.

Weiss let out a yell as she stabbed a creep Grimm through the head before looking over to Dr. Oobleck whom was sitting by the rafters of this building and observing her while writing in his journal.

"Miss Schnee..." he began. "A rich girl with fame and fortune such as yourself, why did you choose this over a cushy job in Atlas?" he asked her.

"It's as you said, I'm a Schnee. I have a legacy of honor to uphold with my family's name and this is the path I've chosen to honor it. Once I knew I was capable of fighting, there wasn't a single doubt in my mind what i'd be doing." Weiss explained.

"Honor your legacy... In the same was as your Grandfather?" Oobleck asked while Weiss looked away. "Interesting..."

Blake barely backflipped away from a flock of small nevermores that flew at her in the attempt to peck at her. She fired a series of shots upwards at them, downing a couple but the rest of the flock dove forward and she dodged to the side before slashing at them with both of her blades, slicing their wings off, bisecting them or decapitating them. She let out an exhausted sigh of relief.

"What about you, Blake?" Dr. Oobleck asked. "You carry yourself like you have a sense of purpose."

"There's, too much wrong in this world to standby and just do nothing about it." Blake argued. "Inequality, corruption, that blind thirst for power and control many have... There has to be a way to put an end to it."

"That's very true." Oobleck nodded in agreement. "How?"

Blake paused for a moment, looking down, not having the answer to this. "I... I..." she couldn't answer before Oobleck took down some notes and went off.

Ruby was on the other hand playing with Zwei now, who barked happily as he attempted to jump at the toy turkey leg Ruby held in her hand before Dr. Oobleck approached her and she quickly put it away. "SORRY! Um... We ready to keep going?"

"No, I believe we've done all we can for today." he shook his head. "It's going to get dark soon." he threw his bag over to Yang, who caught it with ease. "You three, set up camp in that building, make sure it's cleared out of any more of those creatures. Your leader and I will secure the perimeter. Come, Ruby!" he lead her along.

The rest of her team just looked to each other, they all were asked the same question, so it'd stand to reason that Ruby would be asked the same.

As Ruby rounded the corner of the building she stopped and looked in awe at something in the distance. "Whoa!" she ran forward and transformed her weapon into it's sniper form.

What she was looking at were a group of large Elephant-like Grimm that were walking by. "What is that?!" she asked.

"That my dear girl, is a Grimm." Dr. Oobleck stated which just made Ruby glare back at him like, 'no duh.'

"Let's kill it." she grinned eagerly and readied her rifle before Oobleck made her lower it.

"I'm afraid your sniper would do nothing more than slightly agitate a Goliath of that size and age."

"But what if it attacks us?" she asked in concern.

"Fret not, Ruby, for those Goliaths aren't too concerned with us. Ruby, not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm is still mindless. I'm sure you're aware of the saying that with age comes wisdom? The same can be true for the creatures of Grimm." he explained. "These Goliaths are superior to everything you've fought thus far, but most importantly; they've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, it only will cause more trouble for them then it's worth. They've learned that killing one human will only bring more."

"Why are they this close to the city then?" Ruby asked.

"They're waiting." Oobleck speculated. "Waiting for the opportune moment. Likely when our enemy goes through with whatever nefarious scheme they're planning."

Ruby lowered her weapon and put it away as the Goliaths, looking over at them turned away and kept walking forward.

"Say Dr. Oobleck, I was wondering..."

"Wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?" he asked her.

"No, I was wondering... Wondering why you wanted to become a huntsman?" she asked.

Dr. Oobleck nodded before he gestured to their surroundings. "Look around me Ruby and tell me what you see."

"Lots of old abandoned buildings, um... empty streets, Grimm..."

"I see lives that could have been saved." he began as he started walking around the perimeter with Ruby and Zwei following close behind her. "As a huntsman it's my job to protect the people, and although using brute force and strength can protect the people just fine... I prefer to use my mind. As a teacher I can take knowledge, the most valuable weapon, and place it into the hands of each student that enters my classroom doors. I look around this wasteland and I see lives that could have been saved. However, I also see an opportunity. The opportunity to study from these ruins and learn from this tragedy, so we may never repeat it and therefore become stronger."

Dr. Oobleck finally stopped in front of her. "I'm a huntsman, because there's nothing else in this world that I would rather be."

On the interior of the building Oobleck had instructed them to set up camp in the four were finally finished and sitting around the fire.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything at all." Yang shook her head. "Maybe we just didn't look hard enough."

"We... We can't always get lucky." Blake argued. "Those last times, were a complete coincidence. We were just so lucky to have been in the right place, at the right time."

"That's... Not what I meant." Weiss interjected.

"Huh?" Blake was confused, as was Yang.

"About upholding a legacy. There's so much more to it than that." Weiss admitted.

Yeah, I mean... Me too... I mean... I don't know..." Yang scratched the back of her head, not knowing either.

"I don't know either... I just figured I'd be able to take things step by step." Blake affirmed.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter. I mean we know why we're here now, right?" Yang asked.

Before the discussion could continue any further Dr. Oobleck entered the small encampment. "Ah, excellent! A well put together campfire!"

Ruby and Zwei both huddled up next to the fire for the warmth. "So...Warm..."

"Eat your dinners and go to bed, we have much ground to cover tomorrow!" Dr. Oobleck instructed. "And we'll need to take turns watching over our temporary living space! Are there any volunteers for first watch?" he asked.

"Heh... Yo!" Ruby held her hand up as she started to walk over to a vantage point.

"Hey sis." Yang called out to her.

"Yeah?" Ruby stopped.

"Did, Dr. Oobleck ask you about why you wanted to become a huntress?"

"Hmm... No, not really." Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well, have a good night!" she smiled before going up to her vantage point.

Yang shifts about while trying to sleep, find herself unable to, as Weiss just stares forward while laying on her side, still stuck in her thoughts and Blake was just staring directly up at the ceiling.

Ruby on the other hand was just looking around at their surroundings from where she was perched, with Zwei sitting on her lap. "Things will be better in the morning, Zwei." Ruby pet him as he curled up more on her lap.

* * *

**Commentary**: With this one, I did change the name of the mission, it's essentially the same thing. But Search and Destroy didn't seem right, nor did it fit what Ozpin was talking about with Ironwood. It makes more sense to call it a scouting mission. We have Oobleck's questioning of the team and their motives, but the talk next chapter that they have will be different.


	10. Chapter 10: Mountain Glenn

General Ironwood stared into the distance, by the airship docks, his hand twitching slightly as he looked out into the forest that separated Vale from Beacon.

Glynda Goodwitch approached him and he turned to face her. "Trouble sleeping?" she asked.

The General straightened his posture. "My hand was acting up."

"So you decided to get dressed, walk all the way out here and stare menacingly into the distance because your hand was acting up?" Glynda replied with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a more serious tone.

"It's just. I've trusted him for many years. We've both trusted him, Yet I feel like he's still keeping us in the dark." the general admitted.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Glynda argued, a clear hint of her usual strictness in her voice. "You of all people should know we're not the ones being kept in the dark."

"That doesn't exactly make it any better... I just... It feels wrong to see him acting so passively. Especially not when we have the Festival around the corner."

"James, I believe you're a good person." Glynda put a hand on his shoulder. "You always do what's right for the people, even when it gets you negative publicity. It's admirable. However, instead of just talking about trust... I think you'd be better off with showing some. Professor Ozpin is the most experienced person out of all of us, I'm certain he knows what he is doing. I think it's important to remember, that we're not alone in this." she assured before staring out into the distance with him now.

* * *

At the encampment around Mountain Glenn, Weiss, Blake and Yang were all laying next to the camp fire, with Oobleck now asleep on the rafters above them. Ruby was still surveying the area through the scope of her sniper rifle.

Yang opened an eye, looking to the others, but tried to focus herself enough to sleep.

Weiss opened her eyes as well before letting out a bit of a sigh. "You two having trouble sleeping as well?" she asked.

"Yeah..." Blake affirmed.

"Same here..." Yang leaned over slightly now to face the two.

"Still thinking about what Oobleck asked us?" Blake asked.

"Yeah... I feel like, maybe we just... Maybe we're wrong?" Weiss stated. "You see... My grandfather founded my family's company through sheer force of will. By collaborating with others and doing a lot of work himself. Maybe I just hope I can become an ounce of the person he is..." she reasoned.

"I could have gone to Atlas. But, my father was fairly adamant on me not. He'd seen what the Military made my sister out to be, and didn't like it. He didn't think it'd be good for his heiress to be so militant. Of course that isn't the only reason. He didn't want me to go to Vale or any huntsman academy for that matter. I can plainly see why now. Coming out here, I've seen and experienced so much. Things I once believed aren't what they seemed and maybe I'm not the person I thought I was..."

"I know I'm definitely not the person I think I am." Blake stated. "When Oobleck asked me 'How?' earlier... I... I couldn't think of an answer...I chose to go to Beacon because I had no where else to go and I hoped I'd sort myself out by the time I graduated." she confessed.

"Back when I was with the White Fang, I had a partner. He was someone I trusted more than anyone, someone... Someone that I loved until I realized what type of person he was." Blake looked away. "His name was Adam... When I first met him, he seemed like a decent person and he believed in our cause. But the longer I stayed with him... The more I realized he was becoming a monster... Or maybe he was always a monster?" Blake shook her head.

"I've always acted on my own impulses and they've constantly lead me astray, and I've always just ran when things got too out of hand. I ran away from home after my parents abandoned the cause. I stuck with that blind belief that what we were doing was right till I saw what The White Fang was doing and even then... Even then I still denied that they were wrong. I thought that Adam's philosophy, that his warped view of the world didn't corrupt the White Fang. But, it's clear that after what happened last semester at the docks that I was wrong. I'm just... I'm worried I'm going to be wrong here again. I want equality for my people... I just, I wish it were easy to achieve. I wish there was a way to achieve it without hurting anyone..."

Yang looked up at the ceiling now. "I... I'm certain you didn't choose the wrong path to come to Beacon, Blake." she stated. "You always work yourself up so much. I see myself in that a lot. I mean, it's as I told you, I'm still hung up on why my mother abandoned me. Why didn't she want me? It's just... It's unfair." Yang's eyes flashed red for a brief moment in her feeling of anger.

"I've been one to act on impulses myself. I mean it was that acting that nearly got me and my sister killed all those years ago." Yang looked over to her sister now. "I just, I want to be able to help other people... But how can I do that when I can hardly help myself with my own problems?" she asked.

"I'm jealous of Ruby." she confessed. "Ruby knows what she wants and she hasn't let herself get deterred from it."

"Ruby's just a kid." Blake interjected. "She still has a lot to learn."

"Ruby's only two years younger than us." Weiss argued. "We're all kids."

"I mean, I'd hardly be able to call myself a kid after what we've been through today. I mean just look at us, we're in the middle of a ruined city, armed with weapons and surrounded by monsters." Yang pointed out.

"We all have our reasons for why we chose to become a huntress." Weiss leaned back now. "But I think at the end of the day, it's important that we should remember, this is just a job and this job is our priority over all of our own reasons."

The fire was starting to die down now as the three of them all were finally able to get some sleep. Oobleck slightly smiled, having listened in on this conversation.

* * *

It was the next morning now and scouting resumed as it did yesterday. Ruby grinned eagerly as she fired off shots at an Alpha Beowolf that howled loudly, shrugging off most of her shots as it approached her. She sped around behind it in a blur of rose petals as it now brought it's hand down on an icicle that Weiss formed out of the ground, trapping it there while Blake then smiled to Ruby.

"Ladybug." Ruby stated confidently before the two slashed right through it's impaled arm in a single strike, leaving an opening for Yang who propelled herself at the beast with her gauntlets and slammed her fist right into it's chest, landing atop it as she fired shot after shot from her gauntlet at it, till it stopped moving and dissipated.

"Great work team!" Ruby cheered as the three members of her team all nodded among themselves, having bettered their own resolve. The three approached Oobleck to discuss any potential findings in the area while Ruby glanced over to Zwei who was starting to bark a bit.

"What is it boy?" she asked as Zwei barked and she followed him. As she followed Zwei she stepped over a part of the road that seemed to crack a bit under her weight, making her yelp before quickly getting off of it. Zwei panted, now having stopped in front of a closed door.

"In here?" she asked as Zwei barked once. Ruby glanced over to the direction her teammates were, wondering if she should possibly get them. "Well I don't wanna waste their time." she muttered before opening the door.

However, upon opening the door she was flanked, smacked in the face by the butt of a rifle as she staggered back out onto the street.

Zwei barked and bit the leg of one of the four members of the White Fang that had ambushed them, but was shaken off as Ruby then transformed Crescent Rose, ready for a fight.

Ruby knocked the rifle away from one of the grunts and hit them with an upward swing of her scythe, knocking them into a wall as the other grunts were now starting to surround her. She then started reaching for her scroll when another grunt, wielding a sword ran at her, this time Ruby ducked from the slash and swept out this grunt's feet from under them, knocking them to the ground.

Ruby then readied to fight the other two grunts that only had swords, but stopped suddenly when she felt the ground beneath her feet crack.

Before she could move herself again, the ground gave way and her along with the grunt she had knocked down fell into the hole, Ruby having dropped her scythe onto the road just outside of the hole.

Ruby screamed as she fell onto what seemed to be the roof of a building underground.

"Ow..." she groaned, looking down at the grunt that broke her fall before screaming out and stumbling to her feet. It was then that through a door, two more grunts, armed with rifles approached her.

'Hands where I can see them!" one of them called out as Ruby reached for her scythe, but didn't find it there. She realized she didn't have any good combat options.

"Eheh... We can't talk this out, can we?" Ruby laughed, holding her hands up as one of the grunts reached for her hand before suddenly only a trail of rose petals was where she once stood as she leaped onto a neighboring roof and entered the exiting stairway.

"Tell the boss we have an intruder and to alert everyone!" the grunt ordered the other as he started to pursue her.

* * *

Roman was just in the middle of another poker game with Neo when the door to his train car opened up. "Sir!" one of the White Fang members called out.

"Perry?" Roman lit up a cigar, knowing for a fact he was not going to like this, judging by how urgent he sounded.

"Sir, we have an intruder!"

"Oh of course we do." Roman groaned, looking over to Neo who showed yet another royal flush in her hand. "Neo, come on." he gestured for her to follow him.

* * *

Back on the surface the team had noticed Ruby's disappearance but also heard the sound of struggling as one of the White Fang soldiers was trying to get Zwei off of the downed one.

Yang immediately rushed over and fired a shot from her left Gauntlet, knocking one of the soldiers that were trying to pry Zwei off their companion away, while Blake, threw her weapon at the last one, the blunt end of gambol shroud's transformed form hitting him and knocking him out.

"Well it seems we've found what we're looking for. But where's Ruby?" Weiss asked, noticing Crescent Rose next to the hole in the ground.

"Don't tell me..." Blake put two and two together.

"What?" Oobleck asked.

"She fell down there." Blake gestured to the hole.

"Oh..." Oobleck stopped when he came to a sudden realization. "OF COURSE! IT ALL MAKES SENSE!"

"What does?" Weiss asked.

"Mountain Glenn, it was a settlement destroyed by an overwhelming amount of Grimm. It was previously home to thousands of people that had to commute to the main city of Vale so they developed a Subway system that took them further into the main city. However as the Grimm attacks worsened, many of Mountain Glenn's residents took up shelter in the Underground subway tunnels. What did they find? They found that Mountain Glenn is home to dense forests and Deep caves!"

"Doc, what're you getting at?" Yang crossed her arms.

"My dear, we're not looking for an Underground Crime Network. We're looking for an UNDERGROUND CRIME NETWORK!" Dr. Oobleck explained.

"They've been working in caves?" Blake tilted her head.

"No, no. You see, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at an expansion. It worked for a while thanks to an aggressive defense of the perimeter and and the Subway system to help carry it's citizens from this newer settlement and into the main city. Sadly without many of the natural barriers Vale had for protection, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start. As the end drew near, the residents took up shelter in the massive underground caves that had been cleared out for the subway and they cut themselves off from the Surface."

"So like an underground Village then?" Yang interjected.

"In a certain way, yes." Oobleck confirmed. "A safe haven until... An explosion opened a cave full of Subterranean Grimm. After that, the Kingdom Closed the Tunnels off... Creating the world's largest tomb." he finished as the three girls all looked down the hole and realized what Ruby had gotten herself into.

"If Ruby is down there..." Dr. Oobleck unfolded the thermos he was carrying this whole time, revealing it to be a torch as a flame at the end of it lit up. "We must find her."

* * *

**Commentary**: So slight change of pace here from the original "Mountain Glenn". Ruby isn't immediately captured, WBY's talk is different than it was originally and we did get an extra fight scene here. There will be plenty more changes for the finale's general setup, so look out for that I suppose.


	11. Chapter 11: No Brakes

Ruby sprinted as fast as she could through corridor after corridor of the abandoned building, looking around and wondering where an exit might be. She had to find a way back to the surface to get to her teammates, but the only direction she could go at this point was down.

Without Crescent Rose, Ruby wasn't able to fight at all and she knew that. She stuck to the shadows. "Heh, I bet Blake would be so proud of me..." Ruby chuckled as a patrol of guards walked past her and one of them stopped and pointed their weapon at her.

"How'd you see me?" Ruby grunted in annoyance before remembering. "Wait... Faunus can see in the dark..." with that Ruby sprinted off as the White Fang soldiers yelled about the intruder being found and she was now on the ground level and ran outside of the building.

As Ruby ran she saw The White Fang members carrying crates, assembling bombs and notably loading paladins onto a train with lifts. However Ruby's discovering of this spot would be cut short when she ducked behind a corner, suddenly the top part of a cane hooked around her neck and pulled her back, right to Roman's feet.

"Hello Red!" he waved before Neo, standing right beside him, slammed a closed umbrella into her face, knocking her out.

* * *

The three members of team RWBY, along with Oobleck and Zwei rappelled down a rope onto the same roof Ruby had landed on as they were greeted by more guards that Yang landed onto and promptly knocked out.

Dr. Oobleck proceeded to contact Professor Ozpin on his scroll. "Professor Ozpin, we have a situation!"

"Do tell, Dr. Oobleck." Professor Ozpin stated from the other end, though there was notably some chatter on his scroll from the signal being weaker underground.

"We've found the White Fang's location in Mountain Glenn, but Ruby seems to have found this by herself and is likely in trouble. With your permission we're going to rescue her." Dr. Oobleck explained.

"Please do." Professor Ozpin agreed from the other end. "But do know that your mission is mainly supposed to be a scouting and assistance mission. I'd prefer it that you retrieve her and then return and wait for back up to arrive. I will contact as many local huntsmen as I can and arrange for them to convene on that area in order to assist in this operation, for now, just focus on retrieving Ruby." he ordered before the call ended and the three members of Team RWBY all nodded among each other and started off ahead of Dr. Oobleck down the building which thankfully was mostly emptied out of guards.

However just outside of the building's exterior on the ground were a group of guards congregating. Dr. Oobleck signaled for Blake to move to a higher position to better their odds of flanking the enemy. Blake complied by throwing her weapon across the way and letting it wrap around a lamp post before she pulled herself to it, landing atop it and waiting for the signal.

"Everyone stay in position." Oobleck ordered before looking over to Zwei who panted.

On cue Zwei walked out into the open and barked, alerting the guards to his presence.

"Who would abandon a dog down here?!" one of the grunts asked as Zwei panted, looking up at him. "Oh dang it, If I had known there'd be strays down here I'd have gotten some extra jerky or something." he felt around his pockets for something he could give the dog when Yang, now amplified with a time dilation glyph from Weiss charged forward at a breakneck speed, punching the guard right in the face and turning to face the others that were now surrounding her, each reaching for their weapons. However, still amplified by the time Dilation, Yang threw punch after punch out at the White Fang Grunts before they could even ready themselves to fight.

"**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA**!" she yelled as she threw out her last punch at the last grunt in front of her, sending him flying.

However, the effects of the time dilation would suddenly slow her down for that second now as she tried to move out of the way, but found herself moving too slow when Blake's weapon wrapped around the grunt's arm and she landed right onto him, knocking him out as Weiss and Oobleck stepped out, Yang returning to normal speed.

"Wh-What was that about?" Yang asked, holding her head.

"Sorry, I haven't perfected time dilation yet. It's a bit of a gamble for me to use as there's a chance the effects of the Glyph can invert and slow the user down instead of speed them up." Weiss explained.

"Well it's a good thing to note." Yang nodded before the team proceeded forward.

* * *

Ruby groaned, waking up on the ground with rope tied around her arms. Roman, held the end of his cane to her cheek as she shook herself awake and tried to get up, but just rolled around more. Her legs weren't bound, but she was still in such a dazed state that she couldn't bring herself to sit up.

"Wake up, little red." Roman glared as he prodded her with his cane again and she groaned, now looking around the room.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"C'mon Red, Neo didn't hit ya that hard." Roman chuckled as Ruby turned around to see Neo standing right behind her with that devious smirk on her face.

"Oh... R-Right." she shook her head a bit before managing to sit herself up slightly, at least as much as she could with her arms bound behind her back.

Neo then grabbed Ruby by the shoulder and flung her into a chair, now cornering her between her and Roman.

"I wouldn't try anything sudden if I were you, Red." Roman stated as he blew some smoke out of his cigar and right at the young huntress's face.

Ruby coughed as Roman then flicked his cigar off before lifting Ruby's chin up with his cane. "Now then, tell us who else might be here."

Ruby remained quiet in defiance before Roman struck her with his cane.

"You know red, I could hit you all day till you decide to talk." he taunted.

Ruby just smirked a bit and started laughing. She was starting to sound hysterical with how much she was laughing.

"What's so funny, Red?"

"Oh, it's just that you think you'll even HAVE all day to beat on me." Ruby smirked.

"Do elaborate for us kids in the back." Roman leaned on his cane.

"Once my team finds out I'm missing, every huntsman in Vale will be on their way here and you'll have no where to run!" she taunted before Roman struck her over the head with his fist now while she kept laughing before he then hit her again, knocking her off the chair and onto the ground.

"Damn brat." Roman grit his teeth in annoyance at her attitude. Neo put a hand on his shoulder sympathetically.

"You know red, you remind me a lot of myself at one point... Young, wide-eyed and hopeful." he prodded her with his cane, making her roll over onto her back. "But then reality struck me hard and I realized that, no the world isn't full of hope It's a cesspool full of scum and it's eat or be eaten."

"Why can't it be full of hope?" Ruby asked. "The world is only full of as much bad as we allow to let happen." Ruby tried to sit herself up. "I feel sorry for you, Torchwick." she stated. "You've let yourself become this? And for what? Some money?"

"Kid, when you grow to my age you'll see things that'll change that happy-go-lucky attitude of your's and you'll realize that I was right this whole time."

"I'd sooner die than agree with that." Ruby glared, sitting herself up now.

"Very well. I didn't want to kill you. I'd have let you go if you talked, but if it's death you're after..." he nodded and Neo smirked behind her, now slowly starting to unsheathe something out of her umbrella when suddenly an explosion was heard in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!" Roman motioned for Neo to follow him outside as several grunts were firing off into the distance.

"What's going on?!" Roman demanded as the Lieutenant approached.

"It seems that intruder lead a group of hunters right to us." he stated. "We're going to start up the train now."

"Hey, I'm supposed to be well into the city when this train gets moving!" Roman argued.

"You don't like this?" The Lieutenant laughed. "Well why don't you stay behind and get yourself caught by the huntsmen then."

Roman grit his teeth. "Fine... Neo." he looked over to her. "Make sure our guest doesn't go anywhere." Neo nodded gleefully as she then went back into the train car and walked over to the dazed Ruby who now managed to stand herself up. Neo however would kick her back into the chair and close the door to the train car.

The sound of an alarm was heard as the group of students and huntsman approached the train.

"Where's Ruby?" Yang asked worriedly as Blake caught a glimpse of Roman boarding the train.

"It's likely she's in there." Blake stated.

"Why would they be moving the train? There's nothing but a thick wall at the end of that tunnel not to mention several other walls before that."

"We don't have time to ask questions." Weiss argued. "We either get on the train or we try to stick around here to find Ruby. But knowing her, she's likely gotten herself into a ton of trouble and is on that train."

"Are those paladins?!" Yang noted, looking into the distance as the train's engine was starting up.

"We don't have time to examine every detail! Just go!" Weiss called out as she used a glyph to jump right onto the train with the others following.

The train was now fully moving as a grunt was looking behind the train to see if they had lost the trail of the hunters when Oobleck's torch smacked him right in the back of the head knocking him out.

As the team stood atop the train car, several White Fang Grunts also climbed atop of them. "They know we're here." Blake readied her weapon.

"GET THE HUMANS!" One White Fang Grunt called out.

Weiss charged forward first, leaving a trail of icicles that knocked all the members of the White Fang before her, off the train. Yang sprinted forward next and blocked a sword swipe, the sword shattering on her gauntlet as she punched a white Fang grunt into the roof of the tunnel and then swept the leg out from under another grunt and slammed them into the train car below as Blake ran ahead of Yang now and started disarming the White Fang members before they could attack her with their guns and swords before smacking one member off of the train with her sheath while looking back towards Dr. Oobleck who charged forward now with his torch in hand launched fire at the several soldiers before him, incidentally blowing open the roof of one of the train cars, revealing a bomb.

"Um... What's that?" Weiss asked.

"That my dear, appears to be a bomb." Dr. Oobleck stated as Weiss reeled back a bit.

"Decouple the Caboose, it'll kill us all!" he looked to Blake, who nodded and leaped down, readying to detach the train cars when it detached on it's own before she could even do anything.

"It detached on it's own!" Blake stated.

"Why would they-" Dr. Oobleck's question was answered before he could even say it for once as the train car exploded and it created an opening in the tunnel that several Grimm fell into.

"Oh no..." he then ran ahead, and checked the next set of cars to find they all had bombs. "THEY ALL HAVE BOMBS!"

"WHAT?!" Weiss was surprised.

"They're blowing holes into these tunnels creating openings for Grimm! But why would they-? Oh... The front of this train. They must have attached some kind of battering ram onto the front of the train!" Dr. Oobleck reasoned.

"They're going let the Grimm into the city?!" Blake asked.

"Not if we can stop this train!" Weiss then leaped down to between the cars and tried to freeze the wheels but the friction kept the train moving to fast, Yang raised her arms up to try and stop the train with some shots from her weapon from atop the car but Oobleck stopped her.

"Be Careful Miss Xiao Long, a brash move like that could send us hurtling into the tunnels and that would be no good for us." Oobleck then looked forward as paladins were starting to be powered on now. "We're stopping this train." he glared forward as the Paladin Ran towards the Group and he launched himself forward, and fired out several fireballs from his torch that each impacted the paladin and sent it hurtling off the train while another one rushed at him, glancing over to his side he saw Zwei bark and jump up into the air.

Dr. Oobleck hit Zwei at the Paladin, the dog becoming a flaming projectile that knocked it off the train. "Go and see if you can stop the train from the inside." he ordered. "I'll keep the ones up here at bay." he ran forward with Zwei following him now. The three then entered the train.

* * *

"Well I guess this is what we trained for." Yang remarked, looking around the car when she noticed Ruby tied up on a chair right next to some crates.

"Yang!" Ruby called out as Blake went over and cut the ropes off of her team leader, she then handed Ruby Crescent Rose.

"Guys they've got paladins and bombs on this train-"

"We know." Weiss nodded before Yang pulled Ruby into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Yang noticed Ruby was still hung up on something as she glanced over to see what.

Neo jumped down, seemingly out of nowhere and smirked.

Yang could tell by Ruby's frightened expression that Neo had something to do with what happened to her. "You guys go ahead. This one's mine." she insisted, her eyes flickering red as she fired a shot off at Neo, who backflipped to dodge it as the rest of team RWBY ran ahead and she smirked confidently at Yang who threw a punch in her direction.

That punch was immediately reflected back as Neo held her umbrella out in front of her and then brought it over her own shoulder, opening it. Yang charged forward and threw out several more punches in Neo's direction that she merely bobbed and dodged around before closing her umbrella and blocking with it and throwing an axe kick out that knocked Yang onto her back.

Neo then backflipped and attempted to bring her feet down on Yang who rolled away from it and got up, making an attempt to throw a punch at her, Neo then caught her arm and pulled it forward, kicking Yang in the face and then in the chest with the same leg, knocking Yang onto her back yet again.

Yang groaned while she got up as Neo flipped behind her and she then fired a shot out from her weapon that Neo deflected by opening her umbrella and swinging it forward at Yang before closing it again and hitting her with both the handle and the top end of it, smacking her with the side of it before opening it again right in Yang's face before Yang countered with a shot fired at Neo's feet that she simply backflipped away from and landed herself onto the crate sitting in a confident pose with her legs crossed and her umbrella open again.

* * *

Between the train cars Ruby took her scroll out and attempted to call for backup, but the signal wasn't strong enough to reach anyone. "Hey! We need some help!" she grunted as she then closed her scroll.

The three entered the next train car and were greeted by the White Fang Lieutenant who was dragging his chainsaw along the floor. Two grunts were accompanying him but the pair made quick work of them with a couple of attacks as the Lieutenant attempted to strike Weiss with his chainsaw but Blake jumped in front of him and parried with Gambol Shroud and Ruby made an attempt to hit him but she was deflected by a headbutt that knocked her back. "You three aren't going anywhere." he taunted as The three members of team RWBY all looked to each other.

"Checkmate!" Ruby ordered as Weiss and Blake ran forward and started attacking the Lieutenant, but one swing of his chainsaw forced them to back off... Ruby looked between the three of them. "Ice Flower." Ruby ordered, as Weiss made a glyph and Ruby then fired off an ice amplified dust round at the Lieutenant that hit his shoulder and froze it before Blake fired off a shot at it and shattered the ice, causing him to stagger back as Weiss then used time Dilation to amplify Ruby. "Rose Blizzard." Ruby stated confidently.

Ruby sped forward now, fully charged with Weiss's time Dilation Glyph and swung her scythe down on the Lieutenant when suddenly she felt her whole body almost freeze in place as the Lieutenant saw his opening and swung his chainsaw forward at Ruby, slamming her into the ceiling and shattering her aura.

"Ruby!" Weiss called out as Blake then glared at the Lieutenant.

"This is what you choose over your own kind?!" he yelled at Blake who took a step back. "You're going to regret abandoning Adam for these humans!"

"Blake, go on ahead! I'll handle this!" Weiss insisted as the Lieutenant made the move to attack Blake, but Weiss quickly rushed in front of her and repelled the attack with a glyph that launched the Lieutenant backwards while she firmly stood her ground now, Blake exiting the car and making her way into the last car before the control room.

* * *

Roman smirked confidently, as he stood at the far end of the train car. "Hey there kitty cat. I'm aware I've been on your mind lately." he taunted as Blake charged forward, not realizing Roman had rigged the car with traps and setting off a laser sensor mine at the same time Roman fired off a shot at her with his cane. Acting Quickly, Blake loaded a new cartridge of ammunition into her weapon and created a stone clone that took the brunt of the explosion while Roman made his way forward and swung at her. Blake rolled out of the way and unsheathed Gambol shroud and struck him with the sheath-blade, sending him spinning slightly as he then pressed a button on his scroll and a couple of older model Atlesian Knights awoken in the room behind her.

Blake quickly created a clone with fire dust that was left behind her as the Atlesian Knights swung down at her and the clone exploded upon impact, destroying the knights before Roman then lunged his cane forward. Blake quickly created an ice clone that trapped his cane and she then sheathed her weapon again and swung forward, a purple beam of aura coming from her sword and shattering the ice clone and sending Roman flying across the room, landing on his face now as Blake stood over him, pointing her weapon at his head.

"You know, kitty cat..." Roman sat himself up. "The best part of having extra time... Is that I can prepare myself for every eventuality!" he then threw out a grenade in Blake's direction that she was able to dodge and block with a stone clone, but the blast launched her backwards, Blake now landing on the opposite side of the car from Roman while he stood himself up.

* * *

Weiss stood her ground near the exit of the train as the Lieutenant was clearly trying to bypass her now to get at Blake.

"You're not going anywhere!" Weiss insisted as she created a wall of ice behind her, blocking off the open train car door.

"Fine then, Schnee. You'll die first then!" he yelled as Weiss charged forward and slashed at him with Myrtenaster, he managed to parry her attacks before swinging once at her.

Weiss backflipped right under the swipe of his chainsaw as she then hit him with the side of her weapon's blade and flipped again, this time hitting him with the hilt of Myrtenaster and causing him to stagger back a few steps before she focused herself, remembering how time Dilation had nearly failed her these last couple of times. But she had to risk it again.

She then activated the time dilation glyph under herself and launched herself forward off of another glyph, creating several around the Lieutenant as she then lunged forward again, her first attack being block, but she bounded off the next glyph and hit him before bounding off the next several glyphs and hitting him, knocking him into the air before she then launched off a glyph on the roof and knocked him onto the ground before leaping up and reeling back for another strike with Myrtenaster, however she felt her body slow down at that moment and gasped before the Lieutenant slammed her into the ground and threw her into the air, swinging his chainsaw at her to finish her off

Ruby, finally having got up, looked to see that her Aura was partially recharged. She saw Weiss was in danger. The Lieutenant swung at Weiss with Murderous intent, ready to finish her off, only for his strike to miss and a blur of rose petals to be all his chainsaw hit as Ruby then crashed through the wall of ice Weiss had created and right into the train car as Blake was readying herself to attack Roman again, but saw the worn out state her teammates were in as the Lieutenant walked into the car now, cornering the three exhausted members of team RWBY.

* * *

Yang stormed forward as Neo smirked to her and tilted her head before Yang threw out a punch at her that she repelled with her umbrella and spun herself around standing on her hand to dodge Yang's next attacks as she then flipped herself forward, kicking out at Yang while doing so before raising a leg up as the last kick successfully knocked the blonde back.

Yang then fired a shot off from Ember Celica at Neo who blocked it with her Umbrella before Yang jumped and threw a punch out at her, Neo not moving from her position as the punch only made contact with her umbrella before she spun around and Yang attempted to throw more punches at her that Neo then deflected with her closed umbrella, countering each punch with a swing of her umbrella till she opened then quickly closed it before throwing a kick out at Yang who caught it and threw her forward, Neo easily caught herself however, using her umbrella to slow her momentum before rushing forward and jumping up, grabbing Yang's hands and spinning her around before finally flinging the blonde into the roof of the train car, knocking her out cold as she fell to the ground now, Neo smiling confidently while twirling her umbrella in her hands before closing it and turning towards Yang.

Neo walked forward confidently and unsheathed a blade from her Umbrella raising it up into the air she readied herself to stab Yang before suddenly, almost out of nowhere a dark figure emerged from a portal and slashes at Neo, the girl barely having any time to block this sudden attack.

The figure was clearly feminine wearing a Grimm mask over her face while red eyes gazed down at Yang before she then unsheathed her katana, a red blade that telescoped outward. Neo's eyes went white as she leaped back and vanished in a blur.

The mysterious woman looked down at Yang for a moment before opening another portal and walking into it.

Yang sat herself up, only catching a brief glimpse of this mystery person before they were gone. She shook her head and then ran further into the train, reconvening with Dr. Oobleck, whom had just entered with Zwei oddly nowhere to be found.

* * *

The three members of Team RWBY stood, now cornered by Roman and the White Fang Lieutenant.

"You can still join us, Blake." The Lieutenant offered as she stood with her back to Weiss now and Ruby glancing from both sides, not knowing who she should try and attack first.

"Never." Blake grit her teeth.

"Then die like the rest of them!" The Lieutenant moved to charge forward, getting blocked by a swipe from Ruby's Crescent Rose now.

"We've gotta stop the train!" Ruby argued.

"You're not stopping anything, red.' Roman smirked before suddenly he heard the sound of a bark behind him.

He glanced over at the control room and saw none other than Zwei sitting there and pulling a lever.

"That would probably be bad." Roman commented before the train suddenly sped up far more and after crashing through the last barricade, Zwei leaped back into the car where everyone was and barked again as the Front car slammed harshly into the last wall and launched the rest of the train upward scattering everyone aboard the train onto the streets of Vale where the Grimm started to flood into the city from this opening.

Ruby woke up to the sound of alarms blaring. "Alert, Grimm Attack Imminent, Threat Level 6" the alarm warned. "Please get to nearby shelter for safety."

Ruby was helped to her feet by Weiss, the two of them standing on the stage in a plaza.

Yang and Blake stood side by side several feet away, everyone was surrounded by Grimm now as the alarm continued to blare with even Dr. Oobleck looking overwhelmed by the amount of Grimm surrounding him.

* * *

**Commentary**: So most of the fights did happen differently here. The team finds Ruby on the train where she was also interrogated by Roman. Yang's fight is probably the only one that goes the same, only because it was so well done in the original. All the other fights though? Ruby and Weiss vs the Lieutenant, yeah Weiss didn't fare any better, even with Ruby on her side. I did sort of find it annoying why she failed at this fight so randomly, so I did kind of implement an issue with Time Dilation glyphs, the main issue being that if they aren't mastered completely, their effect can invert on the person and slow them down. It happened to Yang, Ruby and Weiss here. Blake lucked out earlier on I suppose. Speaking of Blake, Blake's fight with Roman did end differently than the original since I figured Roman WOULD have time to prepare for Blake's arrival. Also I admit, I did borrow the idea of Zwei being the one to crash the train, only because it was hilarious to me.


	12. Chapter 12: Breach

It was the morning and all the teams who had missions in the city were readying themselves to leave to meet with their huntsmen.

Jaune was tying his shoe when he received a call from Ruby, picking up his scroll he only heard a garbled mess of static. "Huh!?" he was rather confused as he looked to his teammates. Nora just shrugged to herself.

"Think it was something important?" Pyrrha asked.

"I don't know." Jaune shook his head as he stood up and lead his team out the door.

* * *

In team SSSN's dorm room, Sun heard his scroll ring and he answered only hearing a garbled mess on the other end. "Ow..." he groaned as he saw that it was Ruby.

"Could it have been an emergency?" Sage asked.

"Nah, I'm certain it was a butt dial." Sun shrugged to his teammates as he placed his Junior detective badge into his pocket.

* * *

Team FCSA was on their way out the door when Alix's scroll vibrated with a call, he answered it, again only hearing static from the other end. "Ruby?" he asked before the call cut off.

"That's weird..." Erika remarked. "Think something might be going on where they went?"

"Maybe..." Alix crossed his arms.

"Hey c'mon you two!" Ember called out to them as the pair followed her and Cyrus.

* * *

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury waited by the courtyard when Cinder's scroll rang with a call from Ruby.

Her eyes narrowed at this, wondering if perhaps the team stumbled upon something they weren't supposed to.

* * *

Everyone was making their way towards their respective bullhead airships when the Breach alarm went off.

"A breach?!" Alix asked.

"No that's a party alarm." Ember rolled her eyes.

"Well we should do something then, shouldn't we?" Jaune interjected before walking towards the airship him and his team were designated to leave in.

"We need to get to the city to help out." he insisted as his team started to board. "Ren." Jaune grabbed his shoulder. "We'll help that village out some other time." he assured as Ren nodded and boarded the airship and Team FCSA followed them in.

"Hope you don't mind us tagging along too." Ember grinned. "I mean we were supposed to go to Vale anyways." she chuckled confidently.

"The more the better." Jaune nodded in agreement as the bullhead then left with the two teams in tow.

* * *

Team RWBY had managed to regroup themselves onto the stage in the plaza with Oobleck busy already working to keep Grimm away from any citizens he could save. There were however clearly some casualties as a few Nevermores were clearly seen carrying off some civilians and some beowolves stood over some bodies before turning in Team RWBY's direction.

Several creeps charged in the team's direction with Yang and Ruby picking them off with shots from their weapons before a mid-sized Nevermore swooped down and attempted to attack them, launching feathers out that Weiss blocked with a glyph before Blake threw Gambol shroud out and stabbed it into the Nevermore's wing before pulling it back and causing the Nevermore to drop out of the sky.

A group of Beowolves followed next and Ruby slashed at them, slashing a couple of them apart before falling back and trying to suppress it with sniper fire while Weiss then focused her aura more and created a large sword of ice that swung forward as she swung Myrtenaster, slicing through a couple of the Beowolves.

Yang was knocked off stage and flung over a car by an Ursa and quickly picked herself up and punched the car using her semblance, slamming it right into the Ursa, killing it as a King Taijitu slithered out of a large hole in the ground and lunged at her when suddenly Nora slammed right into it's head with Magnhild, landing now with the rest of her team beside her.

"Let's move!" Pyrrha called out as an order that Ren and Nora followed. Jaune grumbled a bit in annoyance as he was supposed to give that order.

* * *

Roman and Neo were now cutting through an alleyway, hoping to ditch the scene when Emerald and Mercury stepped out of the shadows now.

"You know, Cinder isn't too pleased with this." Mercury stated.

"Tell her to tell me that herself." Roman rolled his eyes.

"Alright." Cinder stepped forward wearing an outfit that had a leather jacket, jeans and bandages wrapped around her chest and arms. "I'm not pleased with this." she glared. "What pray tell you, is your explanation for why this is happening now?"

Roman just let out a sigh. "Look, I wasn't expecting those damn kids to get in my way and that Lieutenant went and started this whole mess himself, if you want to blame anyone, blame him."

"Kids..." Cinder thought for a moment and then remembered the call. "You mean Ruby?"

"Yes, that brat." Roman groaned. "Look, I know that the later part of this plan involved me getting myself caught. But I don't exactly think now's the time with all that's going on here."

Cinder glared at him. "You'll do as your told, won't you, Roman?"

Emerald and Mercury smirked to him now while walking forward.

"You gotta be kidding me." Roman groaned.

"Now then, I think we do have appearances to keep up." Cinder stated. "Neo, be a dear and keep watch of your dear Roman while we do so."

* * *

Pyrrha speared a Creep through it's throat and flung it over her head, slamming it into a Beowolf that Ren sliced through with his weapon's knives as Nora fired out a grenade at an Ursa.

Team FCSA was helping out as well now with Alix stabbing a Beowolf through the head with one of his dagger's and using wind dust from the other to give him more space from another attacking Beowolf while Erika leaped forward and stabbed a knife blade from one of her boots into a Boarbatusk's head, backflipping away from another Boarbatusk rolling at her.

Cyrus was shooting from his sawed-off shotgun that had an axe head near the stock that he quickly flipped to using when a Creep got too close to him. Ember smirked as she took hold of the chain wrapped around her waist and unfurled it, revealing it to be a flying claw with a hand on the end that she flung right at a an Ursa, pulling it closer to her as she grabbed her sawwed-off shotgun that had a bladed end to it and fired it point blank at it's head, exploding it into shadowy chunks.

Jaune paced around this busy battlefield looking around for something hopefully easier to kill when an Ursa let out a bellowing roar behind him. Letting out a sigh Jaune slashed at it, dragging Crocea Mors's sword across it's chest, leaving a red gash that he then followed with several other slashes before finally stabbing it.

He took a deep breath as it dissipated in front of him without getting the chance to attack. Pyrrha smiled proudly before quickly turning around and shooting a creeper that leaped at her and focusing her attention back on fighting.

Dr. Oobleck approached the groups of students as they had finally managed to group up with each other. "Students listen! We need to get to a safer perimeter, the local huntsmen and police are coordinating to block off this area till we can clear the Grimm out So long as that opening's there more Grimm are going to keep flooding out of it."

"How do we close it then?" Yang asked.

"I could freeze it shut maybe?" Weiss suggested.

"I'm afraid that won't do. They'd just break through a wall of ice." Dr. Oobleck shook his head. "We'll need to keep the Grimm contained for as long as we can- Miss Rose, Duck." he ordered.

Ruby complied as Oobleck launched a fireball out that blasted through a Creep. Zwei barked as he ran up to the group now, hiding behind Ruby's leg. "What is it boy?" she asked, noticing that there were several members of the White Fang, including the Lieutenant holed up and fighting a distance away from them, trying to keep the Grimm away from a small barricade they had made.

Ruby glanced over to Blake. "We'll handle them later."

Blake nodded as the exhausted teams were now being forced back by the Grimm as they kept encroaching.

"This is hopeless." Alix panted in exhaustion as Ember glanced over at Erika.

"Charge me up." she insisted.

"You certain?" Erika asked.

"Just do it, it'll help buy us a little more time!"

Erika let out a begrudging sigh and nodded before throwing a kick forward, a stream of flame firing out of her left boot, the flames engulfing Ember now.

Upon the smoke clearing, Ember's orange hair was now glowing and rising up as if her head was on fire before she then let out a yell, flinging her chain forward, the chain melting through a Boarbatusk it directly collided with and creating a shockwave in the ground as she swung it around more, the chain now wrapping around the body of an Alpha Beowolf that she pulled closer to her. She looked into it's eyes with a cold stare before pulling the chain more and watching as the Alpha Beowolf's body was constricted before it crumbled to dark mist before her.

When the mist cleared the sirens of a police car were heard coming from a distance as Team SSSN rolled onto the scene, slamming right into a Beowolf and now creating a slight barricade that blocked the ground Grimm off.

"Junior detectives are on the scene!" Sun proclaimed as he then took his staff out and smacked a Nevermore out of the sky that was trying to dive at him while Neptune fired off shots from his Rail gun.

Scarlet fired off shots from his Flintlock pistol while Sage ran towards an Ursa.

"Look's like the Cavalry's arrived." Ember chuckled confidently while firing off a shot from her sawed-off shotgun at a Creep that charged at her.

Team CFVY along with Professor Port pulled up in a Bullhead, looking down at the scene with Port shooting at any Nevermore that attempt to fly at them before the team lands by where the others are.

"Fox, Yatsuhashi. You cut down the big ones then get back here. I'll keep everything else back." she insisted. "And Velvet, keep them far from me." the three teammates all agreed with their leader's commands.

_Listen up Strap in Notify your Next of Kin  
You're about to take a ride a little on the wild side_

Yatsuhashi unsheathed his sword and was boosted into the air by Fox.

_Guzzle down your Red Bull, you're gonna need a bucket full  
You're watching me accelerate and tear apart the interstate._

Yatsuhashi brought his sword down, shattering the ground below him and launching many of the closing in Grimm away from him as Fox landed right next to him.

_A certified monster I'm an absolute trip,  
__Like Otis Redding, hard to handle so you better get a grip,_

Fox punched and stabbed all the Grimm that came towards him with relative ease.

_A super-fast, superfly, bonafide wise guy.  
__Call the morgue and say goodbye, write your will; it's time to die._

Fox then surveyed the area before a voice spoke to him in his ear piece. "Large hostile straight in front of you, Ursa Major."

_Caffeine. I'm caffeine.  
Caffeine. I'm caffeine.  
I'm a bad dream.  
I'm a rad scene.  
I'm a tad mean.  
__But I'm not afraid to take you out._

Fox rushed forward and attacked the Ursa major with punches and slashes from his knuckled-bladed tonfas before finally punching the Ursa one last time, slamming it through a wall before Coco then smirked, looking to the Grimm that were starting to encroach upon where everyone else was gathered, Velvet bringing a drop kick down on a Creep that got too close and kicking it back.

Coco then transformed her weapon, revealing it to be a mini-gun that she held forward and fired, successfully keeping the Grimm at bay before a Large Deathstalker started to approach and was undeterred from Coco's suppressing fire.

"Time to **_hype_** it up then." Coco smirked before her weapon suddenly glowed slightly as she kept firing, the shots now shooting a decently sized hole through the Deathstalker as she kept it up, cutting through more Grimm before her aura finally shattered from overuse of her semblance. She resumed to providing suppressing fire, with Velvet punching and kicking anything that got too close to her team's leader.

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury approached the group now, with Mercury charging in and killing a creep with a well placed kick before firing out several shots from his boots at other approaching Grimm while Emerald did much of the same with her two revolvers before dodging the swipe of an Ursa major. Emerald then transformed her weapons into their sickle form and swung forward at the Ursa Major, slicing it's head clean off before looking over towards Cinder who was now firing from her bow at any Grimm that approached the group, glaring in the direction of the White Fang troops now who were making one final charge towards the group, a couple of the members throwing their weapons down to surrender, while others were firing onto them. The Lieutenant brandishing his chainsaw, rearing for a fight.

"If you're surrendering keep your hands up!" Blake yelled as the ones who were surrendering did so, a couple of them getting attacked by Grimm as they approached.

Cinder indiscriminately fired at this approaching group, her arrow's explosion sending a few of them flying.

"What are you doing?!" Blake seemed angry now.

"Not all of them are surrendering." Cinder stated. "How am I supposed to have a clear shot with half of them shooting at us?!"

Blake huffed before running in, Yang following behind her while Ruby glanced over to Weiss now. The entirety of Team RWBY now charged ahead through the battlefield.

Blake made an effort to restrain any of the surrendering White Fang members. Yang attacked the ones that didn't surrender while Ruby and Weiss focused on the Lieutenant whom still wasn't going down even with Ruby's Sniper fire.

It was then that Cinder and Ember rushed forward now.

Cinder transforming her bow into it's dual blade form as she clashed with the Lieutenant.

"You..."he glared at Cinder. "We were right to not-" Cinder immediately slashed through his guard with one of her weapons, knocking him backwards before he could say another word.

Ember then fired a shot from her shotgun at the Lieutenant who was knocked backwards by the shot.

The Last of his White Fang grunts were now successfully restrained by the members of team RWBY as Yang turned her attention to the Lieutenant now, cracking her knuckles.

The Lieutenant rushed forward at Yang, seeing her as the weaker target, however a chain would soon wrap around his ankle from Ember, effectively restraining him as now Cinder was holding onto the chain as well.

The Lieutenant yelled out angrily as the battered and bruised Yang made her approach to him. She was covered in minor cuts and bruises her aura was barely healing. But at this point she was done. Her eyes were glowing a bright red now and her hair glowing as if it were on fire before she threw out a punch that the Lieutenant raised his chainsaw up to block.

"**ORAAAA**!" she yelled out as the punch shattered his chainsaw into pieces and her fist slammed directly into his face, sending the Lieutenant reeling away into an alley, his aura shattering at the same time Yang's own aura broke.

It would be at this moment when Atlesian Airships would deploy onto the scene, dropping off Atlesian Knights and soldiers to clean up the breach, the Atlesian Knights starting to aid the students and huntsmen in closing up the perimeter finally with Professor Goodwitch using her aura to seal up the main hole the Grimm were coming through, unfortunately the majority of the damage wasn't able to be undone so easily and all that could be done at this point was killing off the remainder of the Grimm that had infested this section of the city.

In the alley where the Lieutenant was knocked he leaned on the wall. "Humans are always nothing but trouble... We should have never agreed to work with them." he slammed his fist into the wall as Cinder stood at the end of the alley, glaring forward while a few Grimm, specifically a Beowolf, a Boarbatusk and an Ursa approached him.

"What do you want you filthy monsters?" he asked as the Boarbatusk rolled right at him, he caught it's tusks with his hands and yelled, flipping it over by himself as the Ursa and Beowolf ran at him.

Cinder let out a sigh before creating a single arrow out of glass and aiming it at the Lieutenant. She fired it out and it pierced the Lieutenant's back causing him to scream out in pain as he was now overpowered by the Grimm in the Alleyway. Cinder turned away coldly before regrouping with everyone else.

As the Atlesian forces were clearing the scene, Emerald, Mercury along with their mysterious fourth teammate all dragged Roman along with them in cuffs, handing him off to the Atlesian soldiers and robots.

"Oh, I've learned the error of my ways... Watch the hat!" Roman grunted as he was led into the ship with all the students and huntsmen at the scene finally catching their breaths.

Ruby smiled to Emerald who offered a friendly smile in return.

Ember was clearly bragging about how awesome she was with her teammates more or less just rolling their eyes at her boisterous attitude.

Team CFVY were talking with Professor Port about how they performed and team JNPR all just sat down on a bench that wasn't destroyed in exhaustion.

* * *

"Well I guess we did it then?" Yang stretched as she looked over to her teammates while they sat on the airship docks at Beacon, overlooking the city.

"We did." Blake affirmed with a smile.

"I hope we get extra credit for that." Weiss remarked.

"Weiss, people died... I wouldn't exactly count on anything for just doing our job." Yang shook her head.

"But I mean we still don't have everything answered." Ruby argued. "We still don't know what their plan was with that attack and who that person who broke into the CCT was..."

"I doubt the White Fang's finished either." Blake reasoned. "Adam's still out there and he's likely gotten worse without me there." she lamented.

"So I guess we didn't really do much in the long run." Ruby let out a sigh.

"We did stop a lot of dangerous people." Blake affirmed.

"Well... Most of them didn't make it out." Ruby frowned.

"No... Not even the Lieutenant. The Atlesian forces found what was left of him after some Grimm got to him." Blake shook her head, shuddering at the thought.

"Well I suppose that lives will be lost in conflicts like this. Even if we try our hardest to avoid it." Yang stated.

"We did our best though." Ruby pointed out.

"Yeah and that's what matters." Blake stood herself up. "So what now?"

"Well we should get ourselves better for the tournament and for any other threats that might come our way in the future." Yang suggested with a grin.

"Right this minute though?" Weiss groaned.

"Sleep sounds good right about now." Ruby grumbled.

"Oh yeah. I could sleep for a week after this." Yang laughed a bit as the four members of team RWBY all walked off to their dorm room with Zwei following behind them with a bark.

* * *

Professor Ozpin let out an exasperated sigh as he turned over to face his desk where the Vale Council was in a call with him.

"Ozpin. This is unacceptable. This incident has cost citizens and visiting tourist their lives!"

"Yes... I understand." Ozpin looked down.

"We cannot Broadcast the Vytal Festival tournament if we cannot ensure the safety of our citizens!" one of the council members argued.

"Which is why after some discussion with the Atlas council, we're putting General Ironwood in charge of the Vytal Festival's security detail."

"I can assure you I'll provide as many troops and resources as needed to ensure that the Festival goes as smoothly as possible." Ironwood assured.

"Will that be all?" Professor Ozpin asked.

"For now. After the Festival has ended we will be discussing your role at Beacon Academy... General Ironwood's recent reports have left us concerned. That passive attitude of yours has cost us more lives today than we would have lost if General Ironwood sent in his troops to seek out and destroy the enemy stronghold."

"This is the right move Ozpin, I will protect our people. You have to trust me." Ironwood tried to assure Ozpin as the call ended and he turned away.

General Ironwood stood in his airship, looking out towards Beacon Academy before he started walking down a corridor of cells stopping in front of one. "Leave us." he insisted his guards as they walked away and the door opened to reveal Roman Torchwick sitting in his cell without his hat on.

"So I've been told you haven't been very cooperative." Ironwood crossed his arms.

"Law enforcement and I don't really get along. I know that's a crazy concept to wrap your metal head around..."

"How about the strongest military power in the world?" Ironwood taunted confidently.

"Honestly? Not really impressed." Roman shook his head.

"Right, well what would I have to do to make you talk?" Ironwood asked. "I could make a deal with you... Or I could torture it out of you." he glared.

"Well if you wanna know who the big mastermind is..." he chuckled a little. "You're lookin' at him!" Roman laughed as Ironwood turned away in slight annoyance.

"Where are you going General?! I thought you wanted to talk!" Roman called out to him.

"Oh we will talk. You'll have plenty of time to talk." General Ironwood looked over to his soldiers, the two standing by his door again as Roman laughed to himself, knowing all too well what his current job was.

* * *

Cinder, Emerald, Mercury and their fourth teammate stood atop a roof, Cinder holding a scroll in her hand that played the end of the call between Ozpin, Ironwood and the council.

"After what we've just listened in on... I think we can salvage this in our favor." she smirked to her teammates.

"What about the White Fang though?" Emerald asked. "After what happened today..."

"I mean a lot of those faunus didn't survive the tunnels or the city." Mercury shook his head. "I'm pretty certain they're through listening to what we have to say."

"It was their own folly that cost them today." the voice of a man stated from across the roof as footsteps neared the group. Cinder smirked to the man that approached.

"I only lament that they didn't kill more humans than numbers they lost. I can however assure you, that no such mistakes will happen under my rule." Adam Taurus stepped forward. "_**They will listen. To me.**_"

* * *

**Commentary**: Finale time! I feel like this turned out a little more effective in the original. Like what happened here with the Breach literally went against Cinder's plans, which her plans were for the Breach to happen during the main attack on Beacon to make things worse, so Team RWBY did affect how much damage she would have done. I also made the conscious choice to kill off the Lieutenant here because the show just mysteriously writes him out without so much as a word on what happened to him. Now if he does somehow pop up again in the show, that's where we might have some issue. But I have this feeling he won't appear again. Which most of the rewrites I've seen have had him die around this point anyway. Which the twist I added here is that Cinder is the one who directly killed him after Roman shifted the blame onto him. Well all Cinder really did was fire an arrow and let the Grimm finish him. We did get to see some of the teams showing off during the Breach a bit. Even SSSN did a little more than just stand around and accomplish nothing.

Generally I just had the fighting seem more like the goal was just to contain the breach. A few lives were lost along the way, but in the very least it was contained in the end. I was also trying to make the Grimm feel more like a swarm of zombies than anything, as I feel like where Grimm are at their strongest is in numbers. A skilled huntsmen might be able to take out a couple dozen. But a couple hundred? They'll get tired out eventually unless they have silver eyes. Then of course there's that last note that I end off on, with Adam's proper introduction. I take a few notes from the Comic with him here. His deepest regret isn't the loss of his own men, it's the fact that they didn't kill enough humans. We'll see more of this creep again soon enough, I want to keep his characterization consistent with him being just a creepy abusive dirtbag that has power and influence, at least till someone pushes back. Which no one has currently, so it figures that he's got so much power. Next up is Volume 3! Where most of my changes are tournament related.


End file.
